Red velvet cake is a classic American dessert with a subtle cocoa taste and a hint of tanginess, usually topped with cream cheese frosting (affiliate link). It’s also one of the most popular holiday cakes, especially around Valentine’s Day and Christmas. 레터링케이크
It became popular during the Depression when ingredients ideal for baking were rationed, and it was promoted by dye company Adams Extract.
Origin
While we typically associate red velvet cake with bright scarlet dye, the color of these early cakes was more of a dusty maroon thanks to natural chemical reactions between certain ingredients. The cocoa powder in a cake would react with acidic ingredients like buttermilk or vinegar, giving it a reddish tint. During the 1920s, food coloring company Adams Extract began promoting its dyes with a recipe for red velvet cake, amplifying the color to the vivid scarlet we recognize today.
While the Waldorf-Astoria still claims to have invented red velvet cake, it was Adams who popularized it with his marketing tactics. The company distributed recipes for the dessert on recipe cards in grocery stores, paired with their dyes. This was during the Great Depression, when economic hardships encouraged people to scale back and get thrifty with their cooking supplies. This was a great time for Adams to capitalize on the popularity of the recipe by introducing its artificially colored version.
Ingredients
Red velvet cake is a Southern American delight with a subtle cocoa flavor, tender crumb and a beautiful deep scarlet color from food coloring (affiliate link) mixed with buttermilk and vinegar. It is surprisingly light and not at all heavy. The tang from the vinegar and acid of the baking soda help the cake rise while the buttermilk keeps it moist. It’s typically frosted with either Ermine frosting or cream cheese frosting.
Before World War II, natural non-Dutch cocoa powder would turn a deep rusty red when mixed with acids due to a chemical reaction. During the war, cocoa powder formulas changed and it no longer turned red, so people began using reduced beet juice to achieve that classic red hue.
Today, most recipes call for red food dye, which is more readily available than the beet powder that was used in early recipes. If you want to avoid artificial ingredients, you can try a natural dye like this one by Watkins, which is safe for use in baked goods and has a pleasant berry-like flavor.
Variations
Around the 1900’s, red velvet cake recipes started to surface. Its color is a result of a chemical reaction between the acidic buttermilk or vinegar and the non-Dutch processed cocoa powder. The natural tinting from the cocoa’s anthocyanins is accentuated by the acids, making the cakes extra light and fluffy while also giving them a unique red hue.
During the Great Depression, Adams Extract Company started bundling red food coloring with their recipe, popularizing the vivid red version we know today. For those who don’t like to use food coloring, you can make your cake with beet juice or a vegetable-based red dye (such as Watkins) instead of artificial red coloring.
While a heart-shaped cake is the most common way to serve this show-stopping dessert, it can also be made into cupcakes or a layer cake. Whether you’re serving it at a romantic dinner or a fun celebration, red velvet cake will definitely impress your guests!
History
Whether you prefer to eat it in cake form, cupcakes, or lattes, there is no denying that red velvet has enjoyed a recent explosion of popularity. But the cake’s roots go back a while. As far as we know, the first modern version of the cake made its debut in the 1930s. Manhattan’s storied Waldorf Astoria hotel gets the credit for inventing it, though the ritzy department store Eaton’s claimed to have created it in honor of socialite Lady Eaton (a claim Southern bakers dispute).
Food rationing in World War II prompted many cooks to play up the color of their cakes by using beet juice or pureed beets to make them more appealing and moist. Texan dye company owner John Adams, who made his fortune selling vanilla and food colorings, may have figured out a way to cash in on the new trend. He published a recipe for a red velvet cake and began to sell it alongside bottles of his food colorings in groceries across America.