Red Velvet Cake Actually Got Its Color By Complete Accident (2024)

FAQs

Red Velvet Cake Actually Got Its Color By Complete Accident? ›

A chemical reaction between the cocoa and acid give the cake it's red color. Natural cocoa has a lot of acidities and works well with the baking soda and buttermilk. Along with a delicious chocolate flavor, the cocoa makes the cake nice and soft.

When bakers added vinegar, baking soda, or buttermilk to their recipes to tenderize the cakes, the acid in those ingredients reacted with the cocoa, which was not Dutch-processed, to give the cakes a red tint. That color became a signature of velvet cakes.

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.

The earliest velvet cakes date back to Victorian times, when bakers in both the United States and England began to use cocoa powder to produce cake of a fine, crumbed texture, one that was much softer than the traditional yellow or white varieties.

In short, Red velvet cake is red because of anthocyanin (pigment in cocoa powder) turning red in acidic conditions. This means that the colour of the cake comes mainly from the addition of cocoa powder, buttermilk and vinegar to the cake batter, as well as red food colouring.

Many years ago, the red color came from the presence of vinegar and buttermilk reacting with the anthocyanins in traditional cocoa powder. But for most of the last few decades, the red color has been supplied by Red #40 dye, in part because cocoa powder used now is alkalized to neutralize its acidity.

The main ingredients in red velvet cake are not good for dogs, including chocolate, wheat flour, and sugar. In particular, chocolate is toxic to dogs because it contains methylxanthines like caffeine and theobromine, which dogs cannot break down as we can. Chocolate poisoning can cause severe symptoms and even death.

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.

What flavor is red velvet? While there are cocoa undertones, red velvet is not chocolate cake because it balances both chocolate and vanilla flavors. It contains cocoa but not the same quantity as traditional chocolate cake, resulting in a more subtle cocoa flavor and tanginess due to the buttermilk and vinegar.

For Black folks, red is symbolic of sacrifice, bloodshed. It is a color in the Black liberation flag. You see red repeated a lot in Black culture, in Black spirituality, in Black food. I do think that's one of the reasons why red velvet cake is now a food that people now associate with the Juneteenth holiday.”

Why is red velvet cake expensive? ›

The cocoa powder is used in less quantity and the taste develops by the mixing of vinegar and buttermilk with the cocoa powder. The recipe involves many ingredients in small quantity. The frosting- if used cream cheese is an expensive element in itself.

Storage: Red velvet cake should be stored in the refrigerator because of the cream cheese frosting. It will stay good for about 5 days. We think it is best when it has 1-2 hours to sit out of the fridge to come up to room temperature before serving.

Red velvet cake is traditionally a red, crimson, or scarlet-colored layer cake, layered with ermine icing. Traditional recipes do not use food coloring, with the red color possibly due to non-Dutched, anthocyanin-rich cocoa, and possibly due to the usage of brown sugar, formerly called red sugar.

It was during the 1800's that recipes would frequently call for the use of cocoa for luxury cakes. They would call the cakes "velvet" cakes and serve them at fancy dessert parties. The word velvet lets guests know the cake will have a smooth and soft texture. describe the soft, smooth texture of the cake.

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.

Mix cocoa with vanilla essence. Using a toothpick, add gel food colouring gradually in small amounts along with a little extra water. Step 2: Mix the red food colouring, cocoa and vanilla essence mixture well to form a paste.

However, so-called velvet cakes have been popular since the 19th century or Victorian era. In 1911, a combination of devil's food cake and mahogany cake was published as a velvet cocoa cake recipe. Red velvet cake is sometimes mistaken for chocolate, but it's a vanilla cake with a striking ruby color.

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.