[Sca-cooks] OT/OOP: Wazzup with "Red Velvet Cake"

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

> Hullo, the list!
>
> I just heard my first mention of Red Velvet Cake on the radio five
> minutes ago, and I went looking for a recipe, only to find it just a
> little frightening.
>
> It appears to be a more-or-less innocuous, lightly-cocoa-flavored
> cream cake (in the sense that you cream together the fat and sugar to
> a very light, foamy consistency before adding the other ingredients,
> which seem to be fairly common, except perhaps for a dash of vinegar,
> often seen in Southern pie crust recipes). So far, so good.
>
> That is, until you get to the _TWO_OUNCES_ of red food coloring added
> to the batter. That's 1/4 cup.
>
> It seems that there are heretical recipes that call for a mere one
> ounce, but those are inferior because the crumb of the cake is a deep
> pink, and not, strictly speaking, red. It is rumored that you get
> points taken off if the powdered micro-grains of cocoa are visible in
> your finished cake.
>
> Is anyone else reminded of the Red Raspberry Zinger cereal-ad debacle
> in Stephen King's novel "Cujo"?
>
> Okay, guys, let's hear the pitch. Is this really something people eat?
>
> Adamantius

I've had it as far north as Lancaster PA, in an Amish-y restaurant, but it
wasn't deeply red. I've heard somewhere that the baking soda is supposed
to react with some of the other ingredients to turn it red, but that in
later years people just added red food coloring. Since I can't eat red
food coloring anymore, I'll just stick with the chocolate cake.

Margaret