Red Velvet Cake

[snopes]

It's a cake that can stop traffic. The layers are an improbable red that can vary from a fluorescent pink to a dark ruddy mahogany. The color, often enhanced by buckets of food coloring, becomes even more eye-catching set against clouds of snowy icing, like a slash of glossy lipstick framed by platinum blond curls. Even the name has a vampy allure: red velvet.

It is also the subject of an urban legend: a woman at the Waldorf was supposedly so taken with it that she asked for the recipe — for which she was charged $100 or more. In revenge, she passed it along to everyone she knew. The tale, like a similar one about a cookie recipe from Neiman Marcus, has been debunked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/14/dining/14velv.html

[Ali Infree]

Hmmmm, red velvet cake !

The cocoa, aha! I knew there was a reason it was love at first bite.

Ali "recovering chocolohic" Infree

[Ana Ng]

Oh, it would totally be worth it. I loves me some red velvet cake. I usually get it at the Bird-in-Hand bakery, but I bet I could turn up something decent around these parts if I looked.

Now I'm craving a cupcake, damnit!

[matches]

That I have heard is that it's just standard yellow cake mix with a great deal of red food dye added.

Obviously Red 7 is a key ingredient since that color just doesn't naturally lend itself to baked goods, but is there any real differnce between a moist delicious yellow cake, and a moist delicous red velvet cake?

hmmm.....a delicious mystery....quickly to the bakery!

[ThistleS]

Matches, when I've had it it's been chocolate cake dyed red. I can't even imagine how much food coloring has to be added to chocolate cake batter to make it red.

[Ana Ng]

I'm fairly certain chocolate is part of the definition. I could be making this up but I vaguely recall something about replacing "devil's food" as a cake name/theme.

I've seen recipes where it calls for the whole bottle of color.

ETA: That's what I'm talking 'bout. See it?

[ThistleS]

So Ana, do you like it more than regular devil's food cake? I think it tastes pretty much the same, but maybe I have not had the best representation of the genre.

[Auntie Witch]

Red velvet cake:

INGREDIENTS:

* 1/2 cup shortening
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 tablespoons cocoa
* 1 1/2 oz red food coloring
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 1/2 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 1 cup buttermilk
* 1 teaspoon soda
* 1 tablespoons vinegar

(Note that 1 1/2 oz is 3 Tbsp, IIRC. I think it's 4 Tbsp = 1/4 cup = 2 oz
VS

Red devil's food cake recipe is similar to red velvet cake, made with buttermilk and red food coloring.
INGREDIENTS:

* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
* 1/2 cup hot melted shortening
* 2 large eggs, beaten
* 1 teaspoon liquid red food coloring
* 2 tablespoons hot brewed coffee
* 1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 scant teaspoon baking soda
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 cup sour milk or buttermilk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

VS

A devil's food cake recipe with cocoa and fudge frosting.
INGREDIENTS:

* 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
* 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
* 1 1/4 cups milk, scalded
* 2 cups cake flour, sifted or stirred before measuring
* 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2/3 cup shortening
* 3 eggs
* 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

All recipes from about: Southern US cuisine.

[Ana Ng]

Originally Posted by ThistleS

So Ana, do you like it more than regular devil's food cake? I think it tastes pretty much the same, but maybe I have not had the best representation of the genre.

It's like you're asking me to choose between my children!

Hmmm... I think I do, but I can't pinpoint why. I promise it isn't because red is my signature color. Something about it lacking the overwhelming, overly milquetoast taste of chocolate. It almost has a carrot-cakey type element to it, but I'm not talking about the sometimes-cream-cheese icing.

And the vibrant red and white doesn't *hurt*.

[matches]

I do enjoy a red velvet cake, and eat it whenever it is offered (which sadly is nto that often) and I have never noticed the chocolate in it before.

Go figure.

Although it's general moistness is very reminicent of Black out Cake, (something even rarer to find than red velvet) which I always put to the copious ammounts of sour cream used in the preperation.

So yeah, redvelvet is just cake with food coloring, althogh that is very disapointing, it does open the door for blue velvet cake, which might be fun.

Oh you could even have Green Velvet Cake for St. Patrick's day!

[Brad from Georgia]

I never cared for it. It looks like the kind of cake a vamprie would eat.

[Tisiphone]

I had never heard of it before. It looks amazing.

[nancyfancypants]

I rather liked the armadillo-shaped red velvet cake in Steel Magnolias. ("That looks like an autopsy!")

I use to use a Red Velvet cake mix and add a few things two it. Mainly almond extract and then you use cherry pie filling and Cool whip as a frosting with a few sliced almonds. My husbands cousin loved it and we were talking about how I made it one day. She out right refused to believe I used a Red Velvet base because she hates Red Velvet.


BTW I have been around here on and off for years but for soem reason my old post count didn't transfer over.

[rosa who else]

Back in the sixties, I made this cake so many times I can't count, but all we ever did was use red food coloring as part of the liquid in a dark chocolate cake mix.

What my post is about is something I can't remember: didn't it stain your mouth red?

Imagine the color it would turn your plaque (like the Secret Agent Cool Blue mouthwash for kids or the plaque-disclosing tablets the dentists used to use to show you where plaque collects).

I've seen how blue candy Easter eggs dye your mouth cobalt blue. Wouldn't the cake do the same?

[blucanary]

The consentration of dye in those eyes is much higher. Considering your using maybe 1 or 2 oz of food coloring in maybe 2 liters of batter, it's not a high concentration.