The Best Old Fashioned Red Velvet Cake Recipe! (2024)

FAQs

What was the original red velvet cake made of? ›

Around the 1900's cake recipes with cocoa as the main ingredient began to surface. People were finding recipes for cocoa velvet cakes, red cocoa cakes and other "cocoa" types of cakes.

The vinegar

You also can't have red velvet cake without vinegar. The vinegar reacts with the baking soda which gives your cake an extra lift as it bakes, giving you a much fluffier cake. I use white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar works great too.

While red velvet cake is technically a cocoa cake, there is a key difference between standard chocolate cake and red velvet cake. Chocolate cake recipes traditionally use Dutch-processed cocoa, while red velvet cake uses unprocessed cocoa, a more acidic ingredient that produces a deeper, more intense chocolate flavor.

Red velvet cake contains baking powder and baking soda to leaven or raise, the height of the batter. ... Although most red velvet cake recipes contain acidic ingredients such as buttermilk and cocoa, the addition of vinegar provides just a little extra acid to ensure the baking soda can do its best rising work.

How Did Red Velvet Cake End Up Red? Cocoa powder contains an antioxidant called anthocyanin, which is pH-sensitive, meaning it reacts to acids and bases. When raw cocoa powder reacts with acidic ingredients such as buttermilk and vinegar, it turns dark red.

Some red velvet recipes do actually call for beets, but there is no clear correlation between beets and Red Velvet cake, but rather just one theory on the cake's origins. The Adams Extract company attributes itself to making the “original” Red Velvet cake in the 1920s.

The “velvet” in red velvet cake refers to the style of cake and its small, tight-crumbed texture, compliments of the vinegar and baking soda in this recipe. I have baked red velvet cake without this addition of baking soda and vinegar and found the result is a sturdier cake (not-so-velvety) with less flavor.

The red food colouring makes the cake batter prone to splitting, and turns everything it touches red; a couple of grams over on the cocoa powder and the cake goes brown instead of a rich red; the cream cheese frosting has a tendency to turn to gloop at the very last minute for no apparent reason; and the list goes on.

“You can use substitutes for pretty much any of the ingredients,” King says. “I prefer apple cider vinegar for its subtle kick, but any standard vinegar will do. And if you'd rather swap sour cream or yogurt for the buttermilk, that works just as well.”

Red Velvet cake originates from the United States and is a red vanilla sponge made with buttermilk and cocoa to give its unique flavour and a light taste of chocolate.

What is the big deal about red velvet cake? ›

Nicole Taylor, a cookbook author, described red velvet cake as a staple that only came out in Atlanta during special occasions, such as Christmas, Juneteenth, and other big celebrations. The color red also symbolizes joy, which explains its use as a celebration cake today in black communities.

Today, red velvet cake is made by combining cocoa powder, butter, sugar, eggs, and flour as well as buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring that gives the cake its iconic red tint. In a classic red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting is paired but the cake can be really be frosted with anything.

Just keep in mind that the fats will solidify once the baked good is cooled, so the texture may be slightly different than you're used to. The water that's present in butter strengthens the gluten in a cake's flour, resulting in a crumb that's denser and not quite as tender as a cake made with oil.

The Best Cocoa for Red Velvet Cake Is Natural Cocoa

Natural cocoa is the best cocoa for red velvet cake for two reasons. With a higher acidity, natural cocoa works with the cake's baking soda and buttermilk to leaven the cake to a tight, tender crumb. The results are an almost melt-in-your-mouth tender cake.

The cupcakes do require quite a large amount of food colouring and Nigella recommends a gel paste as this produces a stronger colour. Unfortunately some red food colours have a bitter taste because of the ingredients used, particularly the colourant red #3 (E127).

In the 1930s, the Waldorf-Astoria, a famed New York City hotel, began serving red velvet cake. The hotel receives credit for creating the cake, but as the research shows, they only capitalized on a cake already somewhat known throughout the country.

While Chocolate Cake is made primarily with cocoa powder and sometimes melted chocolate, Red Velvet Cake is made with a small amount of cocoa powder, but is also known for its signature bright red color, which is usually achieved by adding red food coloring to the batter.

In the dessert world, this was initially called a “mahogany cake.” It delivered a light chocolate flavor and appeared red-brown due to the chemical reaction between baking soda, buttermilk, vinegar, and raw cocoa powder.

Early cakes were actually more like what we would today consider biscuits or cookies. They were flat and dry, and often had fruit or nuts added to them for flavor. The first cakes were probably made in ancient Egypt. Yeast was used to making them light and fluffy.