Dish · american

Red Velvet Cake

A cocoa-tinted layer cake, mild in chocolate flavor, dyed deep red and covered in tangy cream cheese frosting.

Where it comes from

The red color originally came from a chemical reaction between natural cocoa, buttermilk, and vinegar. Once cocoa processing changed, bakers began adding red food coloring to keep the color the cake was known for.

What cooks argue about

Bakers argue over how much red food coloring to add now that cocoa alone rarely turns the crumb red, and over cream cheese frosting against the older cooked flour frosting called ermine.

Nobody has published a red velvet cake recipe yet. The page stays out of search until one exists, which is the rule for every thin page here.