It's connected with the end of slavery in the US, and when Adrian Miller was researching his book, Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time , he decided not to include it when the people he interviewed didn't talk about ever having it.
In fact, he found it was a "latecomer" to the celebration, and was originally made as a Christmas cake, not as a celebration of freedom. There aren't not too many foods that come with their own urban legend, but red velvet is one of them. It shares the story with fudge cake and Neiman Marcus, but the tale is basically the same.
It involves a woman who goes out to eat, asks for the recipe of something particularly delicious, and is given that recipe In order to get her revenge, she releases the recipe to the public. Sounds pretty familiar, right? Even then, the Waldorf-Astoria was going out of their way to prove that it just wasn't true.
They started just giving away the recipe for free, and by the s the story moved on to a new big bad corporation: Mrs. Red velvet is a strange sort of thing. It spread from the U. But Marcia Mogelonsky, a food and drink specialist with the market analyst firm Mintel, pointed out just how strange the popularity of red velvet is in today's world. And that's the thing, isn't it? We appeal to fast food giants and snack companies to condemn them for using so many artificial colors and dyes, but boy, do we still love our unnaturally colored red velvet cake!
We are getting a little better, though; according to Stella Parks, author of BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts via Splendid Table , s-era red velvet recipes called for a shocking quarter cup of food coloring. Getting that deep red color in your homemade red velvet cakes can be difficult, and while there are a lot of cake fails out there, cutting into a less-than-red red velvet cake is definitely up there. Fortunately, The Hummingbird Bakery has shared their secret, and it's super easy.
First, use gel food coloring, not liquid. You won't need nearly as much, and you won't be adding all that extra liquid to your cake. Also, don't just pour it in your batter. Prep it first by mixing it with your vanilla, then mix that with your cocoa. Then, add that to your batter. Easy peasy, velvet squeezey! The wine has some of the same components that came into play in the olde timey red velvet recipes, and when you pair it with natural, raw cocoa powder, the ingredients act together to give you a naturally deep burgundy color without the common food dyes.
Here's some good news: cake doesn't have to be terrible for you. She suggests using something completely different to get the distinctive red color of red velvet, and that's beet powder. Brilliant, right? She calls beet powder a great alternative to red food dye for a few reasons. Not only is it all natural, but beets contain high levels of nitrates, which help regulate blood pressure and have been shown to contribute to increased stamina, which is brilliant if you're going to be exercising to work off that cake.
They also have vitamin C — that's good for the immune system — and a natural sweetness that works surprisingly well in cakes. Have some picky eaters in the house? Always looking for new ways to get them to eat their veggies? That'll just make this one extra rewarding when you sneak it into their birthday cake. It'll be your little secret. Everyone knows it's cream cheese frosting with red velvet cake, right? Today, sure, but it wasn't always like that.
If you want to make a real, authentic red velvet cake of the original kind, you'll need to skip the cream cheese and reach for something else. Red velvet's original partner was something called ermine frosting, which is also known by the decided less cool name of boiled milk frosting. It's more delicious-sounding when you put it this way: it's got less sugar and much more butter than buttercream frosting, and it's not-too-sweet and slightly vanilla-y.
How do you make it? Keep stirring until it gets an almost pudding-like consistency, then add a dash of sugar and a quarter teaspoon of salt. Dissolve, whisk, and set aside to cool. Once it's cool, you'll whisk in about six ounces of butter and vanilla to taste. The acidic ingredients in the batter react with the baking soda to achieve a very tender and moist cake texture with very fine and tight crumbs. The texture of chocolate cake depends on the recipe. Traditional chocolate cakes are also known for how moist they are.
Crumbs are fine like a red velvet cake but the air pockets are generally larger which makes the cake a little bit more coarse in comparison to red velvet.
Depending on the recipe, some chocolate cakes are lighter or denser than others. Chocolate sponge cakes, for example, uses a lot of aerated egg whites which makes them light and airy.
In terms of the flavors of the two, the red velvet cake has a distinct acidic taste to it which comes from the buttermilk and vinegar used in the recipe. There is a hint of chocolate coming from the cocoa powder used and it is usually paired with a tangy cream cheese frosting. Here I will answer some questions you might still have about red velvet and chocolate cakes. The only ingredients that might make the cake more expensive are the red food coloring and the cream cheese used to make cream cheese frosting.
Browning happens naturally when baking and cooking food. It is a result of a chemical reaction between amino acids and sugar called the Maillard reaction. If your red velvet cake is saturated with red food dye, the browning may only turn the red color into a deeper red.
However, if you have not put enough red food coloring in your red velvet cake batter, the red color is not going to show through and what you will end up with is a cake that looks brown.
There are two possible reasons why your red velvet cake tastes bitter. Most red velvet cake recipes call for baking soda as its leavening agent. Accidentally using more baking soda than necessary may result in a bitter-tasting red velvet cake.
Another reason why your cake tastes bitter might be the food coloring you are using. To achieve the bright crimson red color, a pretty substantial amount of red food dye is used. Although food coloring is made to be as neutral tasting as possible, some food coloring does have a slightly bitter taste, especially if used in large quantities.
I would never mistake one for another and after reading this article, neither should you! Do you prefer a red velvet cake or a chocolate cake? And is there a recipe you recommend? While some people think the Red Velvet comes from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the s , it's actually a product from the Great Depression. It was a marketing ploy from Adams Extract , a food coloring company.
Before this scheme, red velvet was made with cocoa powder, buttermilk, and vinegar. It's the chemical reaction between the cocoa powder which contains anthocyanin, a pH-sensitive antioxidant that reacts to acids and the vinegar and buttermilk. This reaction makes the cake its famous red-tinted color.
Adams' purpose, however, was to sell more food coloring, so their recipe included a lot of red coloring. This transformed the traditional deep maroon color into the bright red that we know today.
Honestly, after writing this, I have no idea why chocolate cake has been confused with red velvet for so long. They are truly so different. From the ingredients to the texture to the frosting, they're each unique.
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