Sunday, February 18, 2007
Red Velvet Cake - Where Does It Come From?
A New York Times article on a dessert called red velvet cake left me curious. On one hand, I've got an interest in desserts at the moment for a project. On the other, it's described as a Southern cake, and I don't remember hearing about it while growing up in that part of the country. Then again, I don't remember chess cake, so wonder how mnay of these recipes were highly regional.
I did some poking around on the Net (and will check my own reference books). Apparently some think that it's the same think as devil's food, which is odd because it's supposed to be dyed red. Maybe someone was thinking about the reddish color you can get with dutched cocoa, though this site suggests that it was a reaction of cocoa with acid (buttermilk and/or vinegar) that caused the color. Eventually people switched to food coloring.
I did some poking around on the Net (and will check my own reference books). Apparently some think that it's the same think as devil's food, which is odd because it's supposed to be dyed red. Maybe someone was thinking about the reddish color you can get with dutched cocoa, though this site suggests that it was a reaction of cocoa with acid (buttermilk and/or vinegar) that caused the color. Eventually people switched to food coloring.
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Red velvet cake is, in fact, a "southern" cake (as is chess cake and chess pie). My groom's cake at my wedding was actually red velvet. Normally it is made with buttermilk (as opposed to a regular white milk) and can be colored with beets (for its original form) or red food coloring (if you want to cheat). Usually accompanied with a frosting that is a heavy cream cheese based icing.
My question though is how many recipes called "southern" are actually even more regional. Key lime pie is southern and I remember it from my youth, but that's because I lived in Florida. At that time it wasn't big in other states in the region. Even something like barbeque can vary enormously from one state to another. Maybe we should be tagging the recipes with a state identity instead of the broad brush of the South.
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