I first heard about Red Velvet Cake from Bobbie Lou, my Baltimore elementary school classmate. Bobbie Lou was a pretty, plump, dark haired girl who lived a block away with her colorful grandmother who raised her because Bobbie Lou’s mother worked night shifts and slept during the day. Bobbie Lou’s family had recently moved to Baltimore from Kentucky and the two of us became friends, often walking over to her family’s East Baltimore apartment after school. On many occasions, to keep us quiet, Bobbie Lou’s pipe-smoking grandma entertained us with stories and recollections of her southern childhood.
On one memorable occasion, the charmingly garrulous grandmother talked about the celebratory cakes and desserts of her youth, and she recited the peculiar names of some cakes that stuck in my memory for over sixty years — Lane Cake! And Hummingbird Cake! And the real stirring tease to my imagination Red Velvet Cake! When Bobbie Lou confirmed that Red Velvet Cake’s dough was actually red, that magical imagery was locked into my mind forever.
It would be many more years before I tasted, let alone saw, a red velvet cake but references to it over the years were always noted privately. I sometimes saw photos of that cake in magazines and especially in Southern community and church cookbooks. It seemed to be the essential holiday-red cake with white frosting in every Southern baker’s repertoire. But my first occasion to try red velvet cake occurred after its appearance as an armadillo groom’s cake in the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias, and bakers throughout the US began baking red-hued cakes, cupcakes and cookies. When I finally saw it on a tempting restaurant dessert display– stunning red layers enrobed in snowy white frosting, I knew instantly I would have it for dessert that evening.
And after years of much anticipation, that red velvet cake was a huge disappointment. Aside from its eye-catching red color, it was bland, having no recognizable flavor; not enough vanilla to be a vanilla cake nor cocoa to be a chocolate cake, just sweet cake with a decided chemical aftertaste. It seemed to be a white cake dyed vivid red, and it was unclear why this cake was considered special. Only the cream cheese filling and frosting added a subtle tartness.
So I decided to do some research to determine whether a home-baked version could taste better. While searching for a red velvet cake recipe, I learned about its disputed history.*
Red velvet cake did not originate in the American South even though it is now part of southern culture and often served at Christmas and other holidays.
Some food journalists claim that its historic roots extend to Victorian sponge, devil’s food and mahogany cakes. A Victorian velvet cake, a special occasion dessert, was a sponge cake that used almond flour, cocoa, or cornstarch to soften wheat flour proteins and gave the cake a soft, velvety texture and fine crumb. A Victorian devil’s food cake incorporated chocolate producing a rich chocolate taste and deep brown color. A mahogany cake was a chocolate cake lightly flavored with raw cocoa powder, traditionally including an acidic liquid such as buttermilk or vinegar which interacting with baking soda created copious bubbles which fluffed up the cake and made its texture velvety and smooth and giving it a reddish tint. Eventually, enterprising bakers combined the devil’s food cake and mahogany cake, creating a recipe for a velvet cocoa cake, a close predecessor of red velvet cake.
The original red velvet cake was a brownish-red, not electric red from food dyes. Its subtle red cast came from a chemical reaction between the raw cocoa powder and other acidic ingredients in the recipe. The raw cocoa powder used in 19th-century velvet cakes contained anthocyanins, which occur naturally in the red, purple and blue colors of apples, beets, berries, cabbages and potatoes. Anthocyanins become redder in the presence of strong acids like buttermilk, vinegar and natural cocoa powder, giving the cake an earthy reddish tone.
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however, when velvet cakes emigrated from England to America, manufacture of commercially available cocoa powder had adopted Dutch processing, a method for removing fat from cocoa beans and adding an alkalizing agent to create a neutral pH cocoa powder which makes anthocyanins less stable shifting the color from red to purple. The alkalizing agent darkens the cocoa powder, changes how the cake responds to baking soda or baking powder and when mixed with vinegar or buttermilk, prevents the development of the reddish tint of early red velvet cakes.
After only Dutch-processed cocoa powder became available in stores and American bakers were unable to produce a red-hued cake using it, an enterprising Texas food dye manufacturer, seeking to recover from Depression losses and inspired by a cake he and his wife and enjoyed at the Waldorf-Astoria, saw an opportunity to make red velvet cakes truly red. To promote sales, his food coloring company distributed recipes and photos for an intensely red, red velvet cake in grocery stores. That recipe added a 1-ounce bottle of red dye to the usual velvet cake ingredients and made adding copious amounts of food coloring to red velvet cakes acceptable. It set the standard for the garishly colored holiday cake that was copied throughout the South.
When I set out to bake my first red velvet cake and reviewed hundreds of recipes, I was dismayed to see that 1-ounce, 2-ounces to a whopping ¼ cup of food dye were being added to make these popular bright red cakes and wondered about the health consequences of such intense use of food coloring.
On a closer look at red food dyes, specifically FD&C Red #3 and #40, I learned they are synthetic, petroleum-based additives whose safety in large quantities is still questioned, although they have been around for decades. A natural alternative to petrochemical coloring, carminic acid, also called cochineal extract, is produced by boiling, drying and grinding female cochineal insects into powder, which is then cooked and filtered to produce red-crimson pure carminic acid. But using food coloring from crushed insects may be natural and perhaps safer, it is certainly unappetizing.
I wanted to reconstruct the pre-food dye red velvet cake. And so I explored some safe, all-natural alternatives (various red berry and vegetable juices and purees) to replace the petrochemical and insect-based dyes and settled on beets, the only vegetable with intense red color. The magenta hue of red beets comes from a pigment called betanin which is fairly stable in food preparation, maintaining red color at low pH. It has a mild, sweet flavor but is sensitive to heat and alkalinity. Beets need acid to maintain their red color which will change when combined with baking soda or baking powder.
In my first experimented recipe I substituted a beet purée for red dye but used a small amount of baking powder as the leavening agent, thinking that a small amount would not significantly affect the color of the cake. But I was wrong. The batter was beautifully red but when baked in a moderately hot oven, the cake, although quite tasty, was a disappointing purply-brown. Since I often roast beets at 350°F(175°C) without a noticeable change in color, I didn’t think the color change was due to heat. Clearly, the presence of baking powder increased the pH which changed the color of acid-loving betanin.
Beet powder
So, my solution was to make a cake without baking soda or baking powder and I adapted an English sponge cake recipe of eggs, sugar and flour without fat or leavening in which the rise comes from well-beaten eggs. I added beet powder for color, buttermilk and cream of tartar for acidity and other red velvet cake ingredients. The batter was a deep red as I placed the cake layers in the oven.
To my delight, the resulting cake has the same red hue. It maintains the red velvet cake’s defining characteristics – a velvety texture, a subtle chocolate flavor profile and natural dark red sponge. Without chemical leavening, the beet powder retained its color, but did not add beet flavor! Some red velvet cake devotees say that it is not a red velvet cake without synthetic dye and that the chemical taste of dye is an essential element of the cake’s appealing flavor profile. But I can’t imagine savoring an unnatural, chemical taste.
This recipe makes a 2 -layer red velvet cake, tender and moist, with a slight tang, ideal for a small gathering. It is not too sweet with a subtle cocoa flavor with silky-smooth, vanilla-flavored ermine frosting. It is a perfect holiday cake.
Natural Red Velvet Cake
6 eggs, separated
1 cup granulated sugar, divided in half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup (79 ml) buttermilk
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
¾ cup (97 g) cake flour
⅓ cup (36 g) beet powder*
1½ tablespoon cocoa powder
Pinch salt
Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a metal bowl placed over a pot of simmering water, whisk together egg yolks, ½ cup granulated sugar, vanilla and buttermilk for 3-5 minutes until pale yellow.
Remove from heat and, with a mixer, continue whisking for an additional 5 minutes until thick and foamy, nearly tripling in size.
In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy. Add in cream of tartar. Continue whisking until soft peaks begin to form, then gradually add remaining ½ cup granulated sugar and beat until peaks are stiff and glossy.
In a third bowl, sift together cocoa powder, cake flour and beet powder.
Gently sift dry ingredients into egg yolk and egg white mixtures, folding all three components together until just combined.
Grease two 9″ (23 cm) round springform cake pans and line bottom with parchment paper. Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Test cake center for doneness with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, the layers are done.
Remove cake layers from oven and invert pans over baking rack while cake cools. Once cool, using a knife gently ease cake away from edges and remove from the pan. Frost cake when room temperature.
Serves 10-12.
I provide two frostings for this red velvet cake. The ermine frosting used originally on red velvet cakes (also called flour buttercream, custard buttercream, cooked roux, boiled milk frosting or pudding frosting in Europe) is an old-fashioned French-inspired buttercream. The currently popular cream cheese frosting went into use after the resurgence of red velvets popularity in the 1980s. Both frostings work well with this cake. However, I prefer the ermine frosting as it includes less sugar and more butter than buttercream frosting. It is not too sweet and has a light, silky texture with slightly more body, a perfect finish to this red velvet cake.
Ermine Frosting
8 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
Place sugar, flour, and salt into a medium saucepan. Whisk to combine.
Add milk and vanilla, stir to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture boils. Continue cooking while stirring constantly for 1-2 more minutes until the mixture thickens to a pudding-like consistency. Remove from heat.
Pour into a bowl and place plastic wrap directly on top to prevent a skin from forming. Cool to room temperature.
Using a stand mixer or hand mixer with a paddle attachment, beat butter on high until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Slowly add the flour mixture 1 tablespoon at a time while the butter is whipping, incorporating well after each addition. When flour mixture is added, continue beating for 2-3mins until smooth and fluffy.
Ermine frosting can be made a day in advance and refrigerated overnight. It must be brought to room temperature again before frosting the cake. Extra frosting can be placed in an airtight container and refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 3 months.
The recipe makes enough to frost and decorate a two-layer 9”(23 cm) cake with some left over.
Cream Cheese Frosting
8 ounces (227 g) butter, room temperature|
8 ounces (227 g) cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioner’s sugar
Cream together butter and cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Add vanilla and sugar, beating until well combined. Allow cake to completely cool before frosting. Makes enough to frost a two-layer 9”(23 cm) cake. –
Cream cheese frosting can also be made in advance and refrigerated overnight. It should be brought to room temperature and rewhipped before frosting the cake.
*For a detailed history of the red velvet cake, read:
Stella Park, Brave Tarts:Iconic American Desserts, W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.
https://www.southernliving.com/desserts/cakes/southern-red-velvet-cake
One year ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/orange-christmas-cake-white-chocolate-frosting/
Two years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/starlight-sugar-crisps/
Three years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/rediscovering-holiday-walnut-cookies/
Four years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/discovering-perus-foodways-part-one/
Five years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/a-chocolate-indulgence-steamed-chocolate-pudding/
Six years ago: http://www.kitchenepiphanies.com/dark-ale-braised-beef-short-ribs-carbonnade-a-la-flamande/