The Perfect Red Velvet Cake and Cream Cheese Icing
The science and history behind it and putting the controversy to rest
This article first appeared on Food24
What is red velvet cake?
The origins of this cake may be lost in obscurity. But the story goes along these lines:
Sales of food colouring and extracts slumped during the great depression and the Adams Extract company wanted to boost sales so started to circulate recipe cards of the Red Velvet recipe at grocery stores sometime in the 40’s.
It is unclear where the original idea or recipe came from, but perhaps the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, who have a record of the cake appearing on their menus in the 30’s (who may or may not have used beetroot juice to colour the cake). The original recipe may have been a variation of a Devil’s food cake, which has a slight reddish colour due to the reaction of cocoa with acid, which dates back to the early part of the 20th century.
The “velvet” part of the name comes from the addition of cocoa (or almond flour or cornflour) to the batter resulting in a softer, more velvety cake. A practice dating back as far as 1800’s.
Since these obscure beginnings, the cake flavour has gone stratospheric! These days you can purchase red velvet cupcakes to eat in the bath while soaking in a red velvet bubble bath and burning a red velvet candle.
What is pH and why do I care about it?
pH is a scale that measures the acidity or alkalinity of substances. It represents a scale of 1 to 14, where 1 in the most acidic and 14 is the most alkali. Lots of foods are acidic (like lemons and vinegar and buttermilk) only a few foods are alkali (and they usually contain bicarbonate of soda). The more acidic a cake mixture is the softer the crumb will be, giving it a soft texture. So adding vinegar and buttermilk to your red velvet help to make it soft and delicious. And possibly more red.
Dutch cocoa powder and anthocyanins… say what?
The original Devil’s food cake contained Dutch processed cocoa. Cocoa is naturally acidic, and addition of potassium carbonate (called Dutching) increases the pH (making it less acidic) and darkens the colour. Further addition of bicarbonate of soda in the recipe will make the cocoa even darker and give it a slight “soda” taste like an Oreo cookie. When acid is added (like buttermilk or vinegar the pH lowers (becomes more acidic) and the mixture will become lighter and redder. Cocoa contains natural pigments (called anthocyanins) that change colour depending on pH (like those cabbage experiments you might have done at school, changing red cabbage from blue with baking soda to red with acid). However, the natural colour of the chocolate actually masks the colour of the anthocyanins.
Beetroot as a colourant
Beetroot has also been used as a colourant, and some purists (and hippies) will only use beetroot extract in their mix. Beetroot is a natural colourant (hence its appeal to hippies) and it has been suggested that during the Great Depression and the Second World War when food scarcity was at its most severe people used beetroot to make red food colouring for red velvet cakes. Beetroot can leave a lingering earthiness that isn’t found in artificially coloured red velvet.
And pink/blue/black velvet?
Since red velvet shot to super stardom in the cake world, it has been followed by a rainbow of other velvet colours. As far as I can discern, it is just a matter of using different colours.
What is the flavour of red velvet, best of both?
Red velvet contains a little vanilla and a little cocoa, I think of it like a ‘best of both flavour” and the large quantities of red colourant also contribute a distinct taste.
Butter milk and oil based recipes shortening
The original cake was made with shortening (margarine or butter) in a similar method to a Victoria sponge, but since then the recipe has evolved to use oil making a much moister cake. The recipe is fairly unique in its use of buttermilk, which further lowers the pH (as well as the vinegar – another unusual ingredient). Buttermilk also gives a softer texture to the cake.
Origins of the cream cheese icing
The original recipe for the icing, as given on the Adam’s recipe card involved a mixture of milk and flour boiled to form a roux known as Ermine icing. It is unclear how cream cheese icing became the standard for red velvet, but somewhere along the line housewives got sick of boiling their milk and decided to use cream cheese instead, and thank goodness they did, because there isn’t much to beat a good red velvet and cream cheese!
Aneeka's Red Velvet Cupcakes
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 2½ cups cake flour
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp cocoa
- 1 tsp bicarb
- 1½ cups oil
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 4 eggs
- 3 Tbsp red food colouring Moir's Crimson recommended
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 tsp vanilla
For the icing:
- 100 g soft butter or Wooden Spoon Margarine if you want it to be white-white
- 125 g cream cheese Philadelphia recommended because it is nice and firm and not watery, which can cause the icing to split
- 2 cups icing
- 1 t lemon juice/ a little squeeze of a lemon to taste and/or 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180° C, and prepare your muffin tin, by lining each with a paper case.
- In a bowl sift together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, cocoa and bicarb) and set aside.
- In another, larger, bowl mix all the wet ingredients (oil, buttermilk, eggs, food colouring, vinegar and vanilla).
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and combine.
- Spoon into your cupcake cases, filling each to 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
For the icing
- Beat the butter and cream cheese together in an electric mixer until combined (about 3 minutes).
- Gradually add the icing sugar, beating all the while until it forms a smooth icing.
- The add the lemon juice and/or the vanilla to taste.