For this installment of our ongoing series, a county fair champ shares the recipe that earned her a blue ribbon and gave her an opportunity to pay tribute to her deceased mother.

Joey Ivansco/Staff (ENLARGE)

April Cobb takes a taste of her prize-winning red velvet cake batter. Her entry in the North Georgia State Fair was a tribute to her mother.

Joey Ivansco/Staff (ENLARGE)

The recipe was written by April Cobb's mother in a strong cursive on a sheet of lined paper. It probably came from a magazine or newspaper.

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The contributor:

April Cobb, a floral designer and the wedding director for Morningside Presbyterian Church. She and husband Mike, both Atlanta natives, are avid swing dancers and members of the Feed & Seed Marching Abominable band, a volunteer marching band. Her mother, June Tinsley, was born in Talking Rock and was the first in her family to graduate from high school. Her father, Gene Tinsley, worked for Lockheed and was once a minister. Both parents were gospel singers.

The story:

Cobb has always loved to cook. As a child, she would call her mother when she got home from school and begin assembling ingredients per her mother's instructions. "When I was 10 or 11, I would have the entire dinner ready when my parents got home," she said.

But there was more to learn from her mother than the basics of meat and vegetables. There was baking — especially the beautiful red velvet cake that was the staple of many a church dinner and family celebration.

The recipe, written by her mother in a strong cursive on a sheet of lined paper, probably came from a magazine or newspaper. But regardless of origins, it still brings back memories of working alongside her mother in the kitchen.

"My favorite part was licking the bowl," Cobb said.

Since her mother died of breast cancer 10 years ago, the spatula has been passed to Cobb. The cake is her signature dessert, often requested by friends and family for special occasions. "My brother usually asks for it at Christmas, as part of his Christmas present," Cobb said. He thinks "it's just like Mama's."

Cobb took family tradition one step further last September and entered her specialty in the North Georgia State Fair. Her grandmother won a blue ribbon for a quilt in the 1980s. "And it was the best way I knew to honor my mother's memory. "

But she said she never expected to beat the regulars. "There are some women who enter every year and have for years and years," she said.

She made the cake the same way she and her mother did, using pure vanilla, real butter and, of course, cake flour. "We always had Swans Down in the cabinet," she said. "Always."

She credits the cake flour for its light and fluffy texture. Still, she adds one more sift for good measure. She also believes her mother's trick of combining the baking soda and vinegar before mixing them into the batter has something to do with its success.

Cobb defies public opinion when it comes to the frosting: She believes in buttercream. "It's blasphemy to put cream cheese on a red velvet cake," she said. "It overpowers it."

Apparently the judges agreed. When they told her she had won, "the first thing I thought," she said, "was 'Mom would have been so happy about this!' "

April's Blue Ribbon Red Velvet Cake
12 servings or 24 cupcakes

Hands on: 40 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

We had success following the recipe as written, which calls for making a paste of the cocoa and food coloring and dissolving the soda in vinegar. But we got a very similar, but slightly springier, cake by preparing it according to the more conventional method: With a mixer, cream together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Sift all the dry ingredients together, then in a separate bowl combine the buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar. Alternately mix the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup red food coloring
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 recipe Buttercream Frosting (see recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8-inch cake pans with baking spray (or grease with shortening and line with parchment). Or, prepare 24 cupcake tins with liners. With a mixer, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, blending well after each addition. In a small bowl, make a paste of the food coloring and cocoa. Add to shortening mixture. Sift or mix together the flour and salt. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to shortening mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, mix soda and vinegar. After it fizzes out, add to batter and lightly fold in by hand, until completely incorporated (be sure not to beat the batter).

Pour into prepared pans. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the cake or cupcakes spring back when touched. Cool on racks for 5 minutes, then remove from pans. Ice with Buttercream Icing or meringue.

Per serving (based on 12, including Buttercream Frosting): 578 calories (percent of calories from fat, 50), 4 grams protein, 69 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 33 grams fat (18 grams saturated), 98 milligrams cholesterol, 165 milligrams sodium.

Buttercream Frosting
12 servings or 24 cupcakes

Hands on: 15 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes

3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water, room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix together the cornstarch and water. In a saucepan, cook over medium-heat until thick, stirring constantly. Cool completely to room temperature. Mix together the sugar, butter and vanilla. Add to the cornstarch mixture and beat until light and fluffy.

Per serving, based on 12: 310 calories (percent of calories from fat, 66), trace protein, 27 grams carbohydrates, trace fiber, 23 grams fat (14 grams saturated), 62 milligrams cholesterol, 4 milligrams sodium.

A curious step — put to the test

AJC columnist and recipe tester Deborah Geering, whose specialty is cake baking, was fascinated by an instruction she has seen many times in older recipes: to dissolve the baking soda in an acid (such as, in this case, vinegar, but sometimes in buttermilk) and wait for the bubbles to subside before stirring the mixture into the cake batter.

How could this be helpful, she wondered, when the point of adding the baking soda is to have it react with the acid in the batter and form bubbles — air pockets — in the cake as it bakes, thus helping it rise?

"But many bakers are adamant about 'fizzing out' the soda first, so we put our theories to the test," she explained. "We baked this cake twice — once as indicated in the instructions, and once following April Cobb's tried-and-true recipe, which required that the vinegar and baking soda be combined in a small bowl until the fizzing stopped and then carefully folded into the batter as the final step. The cakes were baked in the same oven on the same day. The result: the 'fizzed out' version was denser with a tighter crumb; the version in which the soda was combined with the flour was taller and airier. But both were delicious ... so take your pick."