Red velvet cake is a show-stopping dessert that’s perfect for holidays like Valentine’s Day and Christmas. It’s also a crowd pleaser when served at patriotic celebrations like Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. 주문제작케이크
Unlike traditional chocolate cakes, this one has a natural red tint thanks to the chemical reactions of buttermilk, cocoa powder, baking soda and vinegar. Some recipes call for a splash of red food coloring to make the cake vividly red.
Origins
Few desserts have a more storied, and contested, history than red velvet cake. What started as a simple cake has since become a celebrated culinary icon, with the flavor appearing in a range of foods from cookies to fried chicken, even lip balm and shower gel.
While it may seem that the “red” in red velvet cakes comes from huge amounts of food coloring dumped into a mix, it wasn’t always so. Original recipes for the cake used acidic ingredients like buttermilk and vinegar to leaven the batter, which caused them to turn red from the natural anthocyanins in raw cocoa.
Around the time of World War II, however, these ingredients became harder to find, as rationing and other restrictions made it difficult to buy staples like flour and sugar. Bakers got creative, using ingredients like beet juice to maintain the cakes’ signature hue. Eventually, the Adams Extract Company started promoting its food dyes by bundling them with the recipe for their red velvet cake, which helped popularize the vividly colored version of the cake we all know and love today.
Ingredients
Red velvet cake is made with a combination of ingredients that are a bit different from other cakes. In addition to the usual dry and wet cake mix ingredients, there is often a small amount of white vinegar added for leavening. While it may sound odd, the vinegar helps the baking soda do its job and create a light and airy cake.
Traditionally, recipes for red velvet cakes did not call for food coloring. The red tint came from either the chemical reaction of non-Dutched cocoa with vinegar or by using a reduced sugar such as beet juice. During WWII, when beets were rationed, red food dye became a popular option.
Today, most red velvet cake recipes call for both cocoa powder and a small amount of food coloring to achieve the iconic crimson color. You can use liquid or gel food coloring (affiliate link) to make the cake, but you can also find natural dyes if you prefer not to use artificial colors.
Variations
Whether you’re looking for an impressive dessert for your Thanksgiving feast or a romantic Valentine’s Day treat, this red velvet cobbler is the perfect option. It’s easy to make, and it can even be made ahead of time.
The original red velvet cake emerged during the Victorian era, when cake flour was not yet commonly available and people relied on acidic ingredients like buttermilk and vinegar to tenderize cakes. When these acids were combined with non-Dutch processed cocoa powder, it revealed the natural pigments known as anthocyanin and gave the cake its distinct reddish-brown tint.
To maintain that color, some early recipes used natural dyes like beet juice to keep the cake moist and vibrant. But during World War II, the process of making cocoa powder changed and it no longer turned red when mixed with acids. To reintroduce that color, a southern dye company called Adams Extract helped popularize the red velvet cake by publishing a recipe that called for its red food coloring.
History of Red Velvet Cake
There’s a lot of debate about who deserves credit for creating red velvet cake. One of the more popular stories involves New York City’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which claims to be the American birthplace of the treat. While the hotel may deserve some of the credit for putting it on the menu, they probably didn’t come up with the recipe itself.
The history of red velvet cake really starts in the Victorian era. When bakers added vinegar, baking soda, and buttermilk to their cakes to tenderize them, the acids reacted with non-Dutch processed cocoa powder to give the cakes a reddish hue. During World War II, when ingredient rationing led to the use of beet juice in place of cocoa powder, those natural dyes gave cakes an even deeper reddish tint.
Today, most people think of a red velvet cake as having a vivid, bright red color. That comes from a tradition of using red food coloring, which became more widely available for home bakers after World War II.