What a surprise! The SO made red velvet cake for me  us on VDay as a real treat. This lovely homemade version is from my grandmother's recipe, one she purloined from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York back in the late 40's or early 50's (details are a little sketchy). This is old school red velvet, not that new fangled version with cream cheese icing. This one is chocolate cake made from scratch with food coloring to get the brilliant red velvety color. The icing is a cooked one made with flour, milk, sugar and that most special of ingredients--Crisco. Yeah, I can see all you folks out there blanching, but believe me when I tell you the combination works, creating an icing that is smooth, creamy and not too sweet. A great counter balance to the sweetness of the cake itself. This was always a special occasion cake in our family and both my grandmother and mother made this in quite spectacular tasting versions. Since neither is around anymore, the SO has made it his mission to re-create the best version possible and with each iteration, comes closer and closer to the best. Of course, as we all know, no one ever makes things as good as our parents, but the fact they try, makes it very special. Each time I have a bite it will always bring up fond memories from childhood of birthdays and holidays with the family. It's an extremely difficult cake recipe to make as you have to be quite exact and when cooking the icing--it burns and curdles easily. Needless to say, I appreciate every time he whips one out and relish every bite for the both the effort and the memories.