Sweet Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake is a sweet, rich layered cake with a very distinctive red color. The color can vary from dark red to red-brown to bright red. White icing or buttermilk frosting are popular and used often and really brings out the red color.

Although Red Velvet is an exclusively American cake, it is difficult to trace its exact origins. Many 19th century American cookbooks, such as the1896 publication The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook and Good Things to Eat (published in 1885), include recipes for Velvet Cake, which some food historians think may have been the predecessors of the Red Velvet Cake. These early Velvet Cake recipes were regular butter cakes – there was nothing red about them.

Because most (but not all) Red Velvet Cake recipes call for some amount (ranging from a tiny teaspoon to a full half-cup) of cocoa, the cake is also associated with Devil’s Food Cake (a dark chocolate cake). One point of view is that Devil’s Food Cake used to be a deep reddish-brown in color which had also been known as the Red Devil’s Cake.

Recipes for Devil's Food cake first appeared in print early in the 20th century, and at least one such recipe, dating back to 1902, seems to be a chocolate version of Velvet Cake. It used a simple butter batter along with baking powder, whipped egg whites and cocoa.

A recipe for Philadelphia Red Cake that was included in The Perry Home Cook Book, published in 1920 also suggests a connection between Devil’s Food Cake and Red Velvet Cake. Today’s recipe for Red Devil’s Food Cake has not changed since the 1920’s and is very much like the Chocolate Devil’s Food Cake: this was done by melting chocolate squares in boiling water and baking soda then batter mixed with sour milk and egg whites.

We know the Red Velvet Cake originated in America in the 1900’s. Many food historians believe that the layered cake come from the southern United States and is even called “the Chocolate Cake of the South.” The cake may not be included in every Southern cookbook, but it is quite popular in the south and a favorite in New Orleans.

No one can agree on how the authentic Red Devil Cake should be made but there are many theories as to why the Red Devil Cake is red. Some Red Velvet Cakes today look and taste almost the same as a reddish Devil's Food Cake. Others contain no chocolate at all and resemble pound cake to which food coloring has been added.

One theory to explain the red color of the Red Velvet Cake may be the acidic vinegar and the buttermilk which are common ingredients and this can change the color of cocoa into a more reddish brown. Famous American chef James Beard believed that the reddish tint came about by the combination of acid in buttermilk with cocoa making some chocolates devil’s food.

Velvet Cakes were originally leavened using whipped egg whites folded into a butter cake batter. When baking soda was substituted for egg whites and buttermilk or vinegar it activated the rising and the result was a reddish tinge – a Red Velvet Cake.

The red pigment in cocoa may have been stronger before the darker, more alkaline ‘Dutch Processed’ cocoa - invented in 1828 - became widely available. The practice of using red food coloring to make Red Velvet Cake probably started after the introduction of the darker ‘Dutch Processed’ cocoa. Today’s Red Velvet Cake is made with artificial food coloring, and the more chocolate used the more coloring must be necessary.

Another theory is that when white sugar was rationed during WWII, bakers may have used sugar beets as a substitute, giving the cake its red hue. Since sugar beets are white, not red this would not have caused the red tinge. The problem with using sugar beets for color because they are white, not red. In modern times Red Velvet Cake recipes call for boiled grated beets of even baby food to intensify the red color of the cake.

Red Velvet Cake rose in popularity using artificial food dyes in the 1950’s and 1960’s especially in the southern United States. But health concerns arose in the early 1970’s over the effects of food dyes and red food coloring which was linked to cancer.

Since then, however, Red Velvet Cake has regained its popularity across the country, especially after it was featured in the 1989 film “Steel Magnolias,” where it appeared in the shape of an armadillo, with gray icing. Red Velvet was also the wedding cake chosen by singer Jessica Simpson her 2002 wedding to Nick Lachey and, in 2006, Oprah Winfrey featured Red Velvet Cake on her television show and in her magazine, drawing even more attention to this cake.

In the article “Little Known Facts About Red Velvet Cake,” Kassidy Emmerson warns against eating too much Red Velvet Cake. The FDA has approved Red #3 and Red #40 as food dye additives even with the early health concerns and possible health hazards of cancer and tumors these have since been disproven, now new concerns are being raised about Red 40# as food additive on young children. It’s generally a good idea to keep a watch on children because some children may be sensitive to this food coloring.

With or without food coloring, the Red Velvet Cake is a beautiful, heavenly dessert that’s perfect for Valentine’s Day, Christmas or certainly any other occasion.