In the pantheon of food-related shark jumps, red velvet cake body mist may well be the greatest leap of all.
One can buy a red velvet scented candle, red velvet protein powder, red velvet air fresheners and red velvet vodka.Even in the world of actual food, red velvet has taken over like so much kudzu.
In San Francisco, where one presumes people know better, the American Cupcake bar and bakery offers chicken that has been soaked in red velvet cake batter, rolled in toasted red velvet cupcake crumbs and fried. The dish comes with garlic- and cream-cheese mashed potatoes and cocoa-infused slaw.Dunkin' Donuts sells red velvet lattes. Republic of Tea sells red velvet tea. There are red velvet waffles, Pop-Tarts, whoopie pies and, in a pileup of dessert trends, the red velvet molten cake sundae.How red velvet cake got its sleeve caught in the American food merchandising machine and ended up as a scent for bath salts is a cautionary tale for any food that starts out with the best of intentions.
Armed with dye and a supermarket recipe, home cooks fanned out in Texas kitchens and beyond. Red velvet cake recipes won at state fairs in the Midwest, where food companies used cooking contests to promote their products.This is a good time to counter the notion that the red velvet cake is an original member of the classic Southern cake collection.
"I find it insulting on some level culturally," said Virginia Willis, the Southern cookbook author. "It's kind of a weird Southern cake anyway, and it's bizarre the way it's been appropriated."
Nor is it historically a cake that sprang from the African-American table. But Harlem is thick with examples of red velvet cake, cupcakes and milkshakes, and the cake remains a regular guest at Emancipation Day parties, where red food is part of the ritual. The June 19 celebration, also called Juneteenth, marks the date in 1865 when slaves in Texas found out they had been freed.Red food is an important part of a Juneteenth party, which started with red lemonade, served ostensibly to symbolize the blood shed during slavery and in the Civil War, said Adrian Miller, the author of "Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time."
Miller explored the history of soul food by recreating a dinner and delving deeply into each component. He was going to include red velvet cake until he realized it was a latecomer, showing up first in his research on African-American tables in the 1950s as a Christmas cake."I interviewed a lot of older people, and they just didn't talk about red velvet cake in their childhood," he said.
(He did find devil's food cake with red food coloring in "A Date With a Dish: A Cook Book of American Negro Recipes," published in 1948.)Still, it is the rare professional Southern cook who doesn't feel compelled to produce some version of a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.When cream cheese frosting muscled its way on top is still a bit of a mystery. Archivists at Kraft Foods, which owns the Philadelphia Cream Cheese brand, say their first record of cream cheese frosting is in a corporate recipe cookbook in the late 1940s.The cake rolled with the times, its recipe getting simplified to accommodate a cup of oil instead of the creaming of butter or shortening and flour.
But it was never the most popular cake in the room. In 1972, James Beard sneered that the cake was bland and uninteresting. Cake and baking experts like Rose Levy Beranbaum did not mention red velvet in their books in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Then, driven in part by a cameo as an armadillo groom's cake in "Steel Magnolias" in 1989 and the arrival of the Magnolia Bakery in the West Village in New York City in 1996, red velvet gained new life.The cake became a top seller at the bakery, which also turned it into cupcakes. As the nation swung into its post-9/11 comfort-food phase, both cupcakes and Southern food offered solace. Red velvet became a superstar.When Raven Dennis opened his cake shop, Cake Man Raven, in Brooklyn in 2000, red velvet turned him into a cult figure. He baked the cakes for pre-hipsters and stars like Mary J. Blige. By 2005, they were a staple at upscale bakeries on both coasts.
And the merchandising arms race was on.In 2009, red velvet cake flavoring was part of 1.5 percent of all items on menus. By 2013, it was in 4.1 percent of items, according to data gathered by David Sprinkle, research director of Packaged Facts, a publisher.A key year was 2011, when "red velvet cake flavor emerged as a force of nature," Sprinkle said. That's when the body mist made its debut. For those who just can't bear one more red velvet product, there is some relief in sight. The number of new products with red velvet in the title is slowing slightly. Between 2012 and 2013, the number was down to 12 percent, said Marcia Mogelonsky, a director in the food and drink group at Mintel, a global marketing research company."There is a limit to the red-velvetization potentials in different categories," she said. "Red Velvet wine, for example, is an effort that may not lead to more product launches."
But red velvet, like a species that adapts to a new environment, endures. In the age of allergies, agriculture and artisan food, some chefs have taken on a renewed effort to rid the cake of its food coloring.One is Pamela Moxley, the pastry chef at Miller Union in Atlanta, who has perfected a beet red velvet cake. She uses a lot of acid to keep the color bright and balance the taste of roasted beet.In homage to beet and goat cheese salad, she tops the cake with a mixture of goat cheese and cream cheese, and serves it with tiny beet chips and tarragon ice cream.
This cheffing up has traditionalists shaking their heads."The secret to red velvet is the flavor of the red food coloring," said Ted Lee, half of the Charleston cooking duo the Lee Brothers. "It is part and parcel to the cake. It really is. Without the coloring, I think the concept is gone."The Adams Extract Company is pushing back against the twisted permutations of red velvet, too. The company this year began marketing the original scratch-cake recipe in a vintage-style box with cocoa, flour and bottles of extract and dye.
"We're purists," Crim said. "What I don't want to happen is for it to become white cake painted red slopped over with cream cheese."
Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from the original Adams Extract Company recipeTime: 1 hour
Yield: One 9-inch 3-layer cake
1/2 cup (113 grams) butter, at room temperature, plus 2 tablespoons to prepare pans
3 tablespoons (22 grams) cocoa powder, divided
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons (10 milliliters) vanilla
2 tablespoons (30 milliliters) red food coloring
1 teaspoon (6 grams) salt
1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda
2 1/2 cups (250 grams) flour, sifted
1 cup (236 milliliters) whole buttermilk
1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) vinegar
Ermine icing (see recipe), or other fluffy white icing1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three 9-inch cake pans by buttering lightly and sprinkling with 1 tablespoon sifted cocoa powder, tapping pans to coat and discarding extra cocoa.
2. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time and beat vigorously until each is incorporated. Mix in vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, make a paste of the remaining 2 tablespoons cocoa and the food coloring. Blend into butter mixture.
4. Sift together remaining dry ingredients. Alternating in 2 batches each, add dry ingredients and buttermilk to the butter mixture. In the last batch of buttermilk, mix in the vinegar before adding to the batter. Mix until blended.
5. Divide batter among 3 pans and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a rack completely. (Can also be made in 2 cake pans.)
6. To assemble, remove 1 cake from its pan and peel away parchment. Place flat side down on a serving platter. Drop about 1 cup of icing onto cake and, using a flat spatula, spread evenly over top. Remove the second cake from its pan and remove parchment. Place flat side down on top of first layer. Use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.
(Note: Measurements for dry ingredients are given by weight for greater accuracy. The equivalent measurements by volume are approximate.)Beet Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from Pamela Moxley, Miller Union, AtlantaTime: 2 hours, plus 1 hour 15 minutes for roasting beets
Yield: One 9-inch 2-layer cake
3 medium beets
3/4 cup (170 grams) (1 1/2 sticks) butter, plus more for greasing pan
3/4 cup (180 milliliters) buttermilk
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 teaspoons (10 milliliters) white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons (7 milliliters) vanilla extract
2 cups (200 grams) cake flour (sift before measuring)
3 tablespoons (24 grams) Dutch process cocoa powder
1 1/8 teaspoon (6 grams) baking powder
1 teaspoon (6 grams) salt
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
1 3/4 cup (350 grams) sugar
3 eggs
Cream cheese frosting (see recipe), or other fluffy white icing1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Wash beets and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake until the tip of a knife slides easily into the largest beet, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool until beets can be handled, then peel. (This may be done up to a day ahead.)
2. Butter two 9-inch cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment and then butter again.
3. In a food processor, chop beets to pieces about the size of finely diced onions. Measure 1 cup and set aside (remaining beets can be reserved for another purpose). Return cup of beets to the food processor. Purée with buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar and vanilla until smooth.
4. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until soft. Slowly add sugar and beat until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
6. Alternate adding flour mixture and beet mixture to butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, and beating for 10 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl after each addition of the wet ingredients.
7. Divide batter between prepared cake pans, smoothing the tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
8. To assemble, remove one cake from its pan and peel away parchment. Place flat side down on a serving platter. Drop about 1 cup of icing onto cake and, using a flat spatula, spread evenly over top. Remove the second cake from its pan and remove parchment. Place flat side down on top of first layer. Use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.
(Note: Measurements for dry ingredients are given by weight for greater accuracy. The equivalent measurements by volume are approximate.)
Ermine Icing
Time: 15 minutes
Yield: Frosts one cake, with 2 or 3 layers
5 tablespoons (40 grams) flour
1 cup (235 milliliters) whole milk
1 teaspoon (5 milliliter)s vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 cup (230 grams) (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
1. Over medium heat, whisk flour and milk in a small saucepan and heat to a simmer, stirring frequently until it becomes very thick and almost puddinglike.
2. Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla and salt. Pour into a bowl to allow it to cool completely. Put plastic wrap on the surface to keep a skin from forming.
3. Use a mixer to cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium, add the cooled flour mixture a little bit at a time. Continue to beat until the mixture becomes light and fluffy and resembles whipped cream.Cream Cheese Frosting
Time: 15 minutes
Yield: Enough frosting for a 3-layer cake
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1 pound (454 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) salt
1 1/2 teaspoons (7 milliliters) vanilla extract
6 cups (720 grams) powdered sugar
2 tablespoons (30 milliliters) milk or cream, if needed
1. Cream butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer. Add salt and vanilla. Slowly start to add powdered sugar at low speed.
2. Once all the powdered sugar is incorporated, turn mixer to high and whip for at least 7 minutes or longer, scraping sides. If the icing seems too thick, mix in a tablespoon or 2 of the milk or cream.© 2014 New York Times News Service
One can buy a red velvet scented candle, red velvet protein powder, red velvet air fresheners and red velvet vodka.Even in the world of actual food, red velvet has taken over like so much kudzu.
In San Francisco, where one presumes people know better, the American Cupcake bar and bakery offers chicken that has been soaked in red velvet cake batter, rolled in toasted red velvet cupcake crumbs and fried. The dish comes with garlic- and cream-cheese mashed potatoes and cocoa-infused slaw.Dunkin' Donuts sells red velvet lattes. Republic of Tea sells red velvet tea. There are red velvet waffles, Pop-Tarts, whoopie pies and, in a pileup of dessert trends, the red velvet molten cake sundae.How red velvet cake got its sleeve caught in the American food merchandising machine and ended up as a scent for bath salts is a cautionary tale for any food that starts out with the best of intentions.
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Armed with dye and a supermarket recipe, home cooks fanned out in Texas kitchens and beyond. Red velvet cake recipes won at state fairs in the Midwest, where food companies used cooking contests to promote their products.This is a good time to counter the notion that the red velvet cake is an original member of the classic Southern cake collection.
"I find it insulting on some level culturally," said Virginia Willis, the Southern cookbook author. "It's kind of a weird Southern cake anyway, and it's bizarre the way it's been appropriated."
Nor is it historically a cake that sprang from the African-American table. But Harlem is thick with examples of red velvet cake, cupcakes and milkshakes, and the cake remains a regular guest at Emancipation Day parties, where red food is part of the ritual. The June 19 celebration, also called Juneteenth, marks the date in 1865 when slaves in Texas found out they had been freed.Red food is an important part of a Juneteenth party, which started with red lemonade, served ostensibly to symbolize the blood shed during slavery and in the Civil War, said Adrian Miller, the author of "Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine, One Plate at a Time."
Miller explored the history of soul food by recreating a dinner and delving deeply into each component. He was going to include red velvet cake until he realized it was a latecomer, showing up first in his research on African-American tables in the 1950s as a Christmas cake."I interviewed a lot of older people, and they just didn't talk about red velvet cake in their childhood," he said.
(He did find devil's food cake with red food coloring in "A Date With a Dish: A Cook Book of American Negro Recipes," published in 1948.)Still, it is the rare professional Southern cook who doesn't feel compelled to produce some version of a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.When cream cheese frosting muscled its way on top is still a bit of a mystery. Archivists at Kraft Foods, which owns the Philadelphia Cream Cheese brand, say their first record of cream cheese frosting is in a corporate recipe cookbook in the late 1940s.The cake rolled with the times, its recipe getting simplified to accommodate a cup of oil instead of the creaming of butter or shortening and flour.
But it was never the most popular cake in the room. In 1972, James Beard sneered that the cake was bland and uninteresting. Cake and baking experts like Rose Levy Beranbaum did not mention red velvet in their books in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Then, driven in part by a cameo as an armadillo groom's cake in "Steel Magnolias" in 1989 and the arrival of the Magnolia Bakery in the West Village in New York City in 1996, red velvet gained new life.The cake became a top seller at the bakery, which also turned it into cupcakes. As the nation swung into its post-9/11 comfort-food phase, both cupcakes and Southern food offered solace. Red velvet became a superstar.When Raven Dennis opened his cake shop, Cake Man Raven, in Brooklyn in 2000, red velvet turned him into a cult figure. He baked the cakes for pre-hipsters and stars like Mary J. Blige. By 2005, they were a staple at upscale bakeries on both coasts.
And the merchandising arms race was on.In 2009, red velvet cake flavoring was part of 1.5 percent of all items on menus. By 2013, it was in 4.1 percent of items, according to data gathered by David Sprinkle, research director of Packaged Facts, a publisher.A key year was 2011, when "red velvet cake flavor emerged as a force of nature," Sprinkle said. That's when the body mist made its debut. For those who just can't bear one more red velvet product, there is some relief in sight. The number of new products with red velvet in the title is slowing slightly. Between 2012 and 2013, the number was down to 12 percent, said Marcia Mogelonsky, a director in the food and drink group at Mintel, a global marketing research company."There is a limit to the red-velvetization potentials in different categories," she said. "Red Velvet wine, for example, is an effort that may not lead to more product launches."
But red velvet, like a species that adapts to a new environment, endures. In the age of allergies, agriculture and artisan food, some chefs have taken on a renewed effort to rid the cake of its food coloring.One is Pamela Moxley, the pastry chef at Miller Union in Atlanta, who has perfected a beet red velvet cake. She uses a lot of acid to keep the color bright and balance the taste of roasted beet.In homage to beet and goat cheese salad, she tops the cake with a mixture of goat cheese and cream cheese, and serves it with tiny beet chips and tarragon ice cream.
This cheffing up has traditionalists shaking their heads."The secret to red velvet is the flavor of the red food coloring," said Ted Lee, half of the Charleston cooking duo the Lee Brothers. "It is part and parcel to the cake. It really is. Without the coloring, I think the concept is gone."The Adams Extract Company is pushing back against the twisted permutations of red velvet, too. The company this year began marketing the original scratch-cake recipe in a vintage-style box with cocoa, flour and bottles of extract and dye.
"We're purists," Crim said. "What I don't want to happen is for it to become white cake painted red slopped over with cream cheese."
Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from the original Adams Extract Company recipeTime: 1 hour
Yield: One 9-inch 3-layer cake
1/2 cup (113 grams) butter, at room temperature, plus 2 tablespoons to prepare pans
3 tablespoons (22 grams) cocoa powder, divided
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons (10 milliliters) vanilla
2 tablespoons (30 milliliters) red food coloring
1 teaspoon (6 grams) salt
1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda
2 1/2 cups (250 grams) flour, sifted
1 cup (236 milliliters) whole buttermilk
1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) vinegar
Ermine icing (see recipe), or other fluffy white icing1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three 9-inch cake pans by buttering lightly and sprinkling with 1 tablespoon sifted cocoa powder, tapping pans to coat and discarding extra cocoa.
2. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time and beat vigorously until each is incorporated. Mix in vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, make a paste of the remaining 2 tablespoons cocoa and the food coloring. Blend into butter mixture.
4. Sift together remaining dry ingredients. Alternating in 2 batches each, add dry ingredients and buttermilk to the butter mixture. In the last batch of buttermilk, mix in the vinegar before adding to the batter. Mix until blended.
5. Divide batter among 3 pans and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a rack completely. (Can also be made in 2 cake pans.)
6. To assemble, remove 1 cake from its pan and peel away parchment. Place flat side down on a serving platter. Drop about 1 cup of icing onto cake and, using a flat spatula, spread evenly over top. Remove the second cake from its pan and remove parchment. Place flat side down on top of first layer. Use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.
(Note: Measurements for dry ingredients are given by weight for greater accuracy. The equivalent measurements by volume are approximate.)Beet Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from Pamela Moxley, Miller Union, AtlantaTime: 2 hours, plus 1 hour 15 minutes for roasting beets
Yield: One 9-inch 2-layer cake
3 medium beets
3/4 cup (170 grams) (1 1/2 sticks) butter, plus more for greasing pan
3/4 cup (180 milliliters) buttermilk
Juice of 1 large lemon
2 teaspoons (10 milliliters) white vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons (7 milliliters) vanilla extract
2 cups (200 grams) cake flour (sift before measuring)
3 tablespoons (24 grams) Dutch process cocoa powder
1 1/8 teaspoon (6 grams) baking powder
1 teaspoon (6 grams) salt
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
1 3/4 cup (350 grams) sugar
3 eggs
Cream cheese frosting (see recipe), or other fluffy white icing1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Wash beets and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake until the tip of a knife slides easily into the largest beet, about 1 hour 15 minutes. Cool until beets can be handled, then peel. (This may be done up to a day ahead.)
2. Butter two 9-inch cake pans. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment and then butter again.
3. In a food processor, chop beets to pieces about the size of finely diced onions. Measure 1 cup and set aside (remaining beets can be reserved for another purpose). Return cup of beets to the food processor. Purée with buttermilk, lemon juice, vinegar and vanilla until smooth.
4. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter until soft. Slowly add sugar and beat until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.
6. Alternate adding flour mixture and beet mixture to butter mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, and beating for 10 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the bowl after each addition of the wet ingredients.
7. Divide batter between prepared cake pans, smoothing the tops. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the cake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Remove pans from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.
8. To assemble, remove one cake from its pan and peel away parchment. Place flat side down on a serving platter. Drop about 1 cup of icing onto cake and, using a flat spatula, spread evenly over top. Remove the second cake from its pan and remove parchment. Place flat side down on top of first layer. Use remaining frosting to cover top and sides of cake.
(Note: Measurements for dry ingredients are given by weight for greater accuracy. The equivalent measurements by volume are approximate.)
Ermine Icing
Time: 15 minutes
Yield: Frosts one cake, with 2 or 3 layers
5 tablespoons (40 grams) flour
1 cup (235 milliliters) whole milk
1 teaspoon (5 milliliter)s vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1 cup (230 grams) (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200 grams) sugar
1. Over medium heat, whisk flour and milk in a small saucepan and heat to a simmer, stirring frequently until it becomes very thick and almost puddinglike.
2. Remove from heat, whisk in vanilla and salt. Pour into a bowl to allow it to cool completely. Put plastic wrap on the surface to keep a skin from forming.
3. Use a mixer to cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium, add the cooled flour mixture a little bit at a time. Continue to beat until the mixture becomes light and fluffy and resembles whipped cream.Cream Cheese Frosting
Time: 15 minutes
Yield: Enough frosting for a 3-layer cake
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
1 pound (454 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) salt
1 1/2 teaspoons (7 milliliters) vanilla extract
6 cups (720 grams) powdered sugar
2 tablespoons (30 milliliters) milk or cream, if needed
1. Cream butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer. Add salt and vanilla. Slowly start to add powdered sugar at low speed.
2. Once all the powdered sugar is incorporated, turn mixer to high and whip for at least 7 minutes or longer, scraping sides. If the icing seems too thick, mix in a tablespoon or 2 of the milk or cream.© 2014 New York Times News Service
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