Red Velvet Cake: Decades of Decadence

Rich and decadent, red velvet cake is a perfect dessert for special occasions like Valentine’s Day. Not only is red velvet cake a delicious indulgence, it also looks fabulous, making a bold statement when you slice into the soft, tender layers.

Red velvet is trending in the food world at the moment, as the colors, flavors, and textures can be found in everything from cookies and cake pops to brownie bars and cheesecakes. However, despite its current popularity, red velvet cake is not a new concept. This dessert is probably over 100 years old.

History of Red Velvet Cake

In the Victorian era, soft moist cakes began to replace the coarse cakes that were common to the period. These tender cakes were called  velvet cakes because of their soft texture. One popular cake of the time period was devil’s food, which was dense, rich, and fudgy. Not long after the turn of the century, some unknown enterprising baker combined the texture of velvet cake with the chocolate flavor of devil's food. This new cake featured cocoa powder rather than solid chocolate like devil's food.

American bakers loved this cake recipe, and as it spread all over the nation, bakers began tinkering with the basic recipe. In the southern United States, bakers began making the cake with buttermilk. The acidity of the buttermilk combined with the acidity of the cocoa powder to make an even more tender cake. At the same time, the buttermilk reacted with the cocoa powder to reveal natural reddish pigments of cocoa. This chemical reaction led to mahogany-colored cakes, which only enhanced the popularity of the recipe.

In the late 1930s, an enterprising food dye and extract salesman, John A. Adams, sampled a red velvet cake at the Waldorf Astoria. He figured this cake could be used as a marketing tool to boost sales of his dyes. In the 1940s, Adams printed the recipe on cards that came with packaged dyes and flavorings and was the first to add red food coloring to this cake recipe.

After the 1950s, red velvet cake faded in popularity. But in 1989, the movie Steel Magnolias featured the cake and brought it back into the public eye. Over the years, the cake has slowly gained fans, and now red velvet is everywhere once again.

Features of Modern Red Velvet Cakes

Modern cooks will struggle to create a historically authentic red velvet cake because modern cocoa is made from  roasted cocoa beans, which changes the pH of the cocoa. The only way to make the original trick work the way it did decades ago is to find raw cocoa powder. Most modern red velvet cakes depend on artificial coloring to achieve the brilliant scarlet hue.

Additionally, traditional red velvet cakes featured a boiled vanilla icing, but modern fans have come to expect a rich cream cheese icing. The bonus is that cream cheese icing is much easier to make than boiled icing.

Red Velvet Cake Recipe (from Southern Living magazine)

Ingredients:

• 2-½ cups cake flour
• 1-½ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1-½ cups canola oil
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons red food coloring 
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour three nine-inch round cake pans.

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, food coloring, and vinegar. Using an electric mixer, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, beating until smooth.

Divide the batter between the three cake pans, and place them into the oven. You may need to rotate the pans during the baking time to ensure that they are evenly baked. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out of the cake cleanly. Let the cakes set in the pans for 10 minutes and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely before icing them with the cream cheese icing below.

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

• 2 eight-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, beating after each addition. Add the vanilla and continue beating for about 5 minutes to make the icing light and fluffy.

Assembly Instructions

With a serrated knife, cut the domed top off of the cooled cakes.

Spread one-fourth of the icing on one of the cooled cakes. Top with another layer, and add another fourth of the icing, spreading to the edges. Finally, set the top layer in place, and ice the top and sides of the cake. Garnishes may include chopped nuts, shaved chocolate, strawberries, mint leaves, or piped icing swirls.

As an avid farmer, gardener, and cook, April Freeman is an expert in the food production process. She raises pigs, chickens, beef cattle, and grows a wide variety of vegetables and fruits on her family farm in Tennessee. Learn more about April’s firsthand experience with farm-fresh food on her blog, Feeding My Family.