# Explain red velvet cake to me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929 "2008-11-16T00:15:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/21 "2008-11-16T22:29:26Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > Red velvet cake is a Southern tradition, especially in New Orleans. I love it so much! I’ve heard it makes a wonderful armadillo groom’s cake. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/22 "2008-11-16T22:35:56Z")
I understand cake. I guess it’s just the colour that horrifies me - not because it’s red, specifically - just because it’s food, with a very large amount of dye dumped in it. I not only fail to understand the point, I think it’s horrible. I felt the same way about some ‘rainbow cake’ recipe I stumbled across - it was written with a great deal of ‘aren’t I clever?’ sort of attitude - but there wasn’t anything particularly clever about it - it was just cake, with food colouring. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/23 "2008-11-16T22:38:03Z")
> [@Fish\_Nya](#): > > Ah, now I can understand some of the appeal. Devil’s food is always good. I might have to try it if I get a chance to. The red always made me think of cherry or something. The color=flavor conditioning is strong in me. I’ve said on more than one occasion that “this doesn’t taste blue.” > > I should get a shaped pan for cakes. Shapes are always fun, no matter what the food it is. I once (or twice) made a fish shaped cake for my birthday. What can I say- I like fish. Oops, when I said I baked it in a heart shape, what I should have said was, I baked one layer in a square pan and one layer in a round pan. After baking I bisected the round one exactly in half and glued the round sides (with icing!) to the square sides to form a heart. No special shaped pan required. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/24 "2008-11-16T23:59:20Z")
I adore Red Velvet cake. Something about the food coloring makes it taste better than regular chocolate cake. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/25 "2008-11-17T00:17:39Z")
A lot of it is the cream cheese icing, especially if a person is used to “whipped lard and sugar” icings. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/26 "2008-11-17T00:19:05Z")
It’s not just chocolate cake. The buttermilk and soda/vinegar, I think, give it a wonderful twang. It’s my favorite cake. My sister-in-law makes two of them every Christmas (although her recipe isn’t as good as mine) and she dyes one red and one green, and mixes the layers. It looks good, but I will say that massive doses of green food coloring is startling when it passes through your system. It will particularly give you a scare if you forgot about feeding your toddler a piece of cake the day before. ---
**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/27 "2008-11-17T00:48:49Z")
I’ve seen dozens of variations for red velvet cake. The most traditional has cocoa and vinegar, which is supposed to give a chocolatey flavor, though not likened to that of a straight-up chocolate cake. I have a recipe I have used for years that I love, even though it isn’t truly “from scratch” or “red velvet.” It uses a package of instant pudding mix, a package of white cake mix, and then your standard eggs, milk, oil kind of thing, plus the small vat of red food coloring, of course. The frosting is cream cheese. I usually make little ones at Christmas and color the frosting green. Just in case there isn’t enough food coloring already. One day I will labor through the traditional recipe and see if people like it just as much. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/28 "2008-11-17T01:03:57Z")
My mom’s recipe was called the Waldorf Astoria Red Cake… even adding more high-falutin’ mystery. The bleeding armadillo cake in Steel Magnolias was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/29 "2008-11-17T01:08:21Z")
The red velvet cake I grew up with was supposedly THE Waldorf Astoria :rolleyes: recipe. It did not have cream cheese frosting. It had a cooked frosting that had flour in it. IIRC, you cooked flour and milk together then beat in massive amounts of sugar and fat (shortening, I imagine. I don’t think it was butter.) The cake had to be refrigerated, because otherwise the icing would slide right off. It was really yummy, though. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/30 "2008-11-17T01:13:14Z")
My mom has a great recipe for it and for the elegant icing as well. It is very rich, and that color might put you off, but it is really good. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/31 "2008-11-17T03:15:25Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > I first tasted it expecting it to taste like fruit punch or something. I was severely dissapointed. Don’t have my chocolate stout cake then either. It’s VERY rich, but you won’t be able to taste the bottle of Guinness I used to make it. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/32 "2008-11-17T03:49:07Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Don’t have my chocolate stout cake then either. It’s VERY rich, but you won’t be able to taste the bottle of Guinness I used to make it. Can I have your chocolate stout cake? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/33 "2008-11-17T06:35:21Z")
I googled images of red velvet cakes, and was a bit surprised to find them faintly frightening. I guess it’s all that bright red. I suppose I’ll try it some day; after I found out it was just red coloured chocolate cake, I lost most interest in trying it (I know what chocolate cake tastes like). ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/34 "2008-11-17T07:27:15Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Don’t have my chocolate stout cake then either. It’s VERY rich, but you won’t be able to taste the bottle of Guinness I used to make it. Share? ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/35 "2008-11-17T07:30:23Z")
I never thought it tasted much like chocolate – even knowing that it was chocolate flavored. It was very moist, and sweet, and pretty much not-objectionable as a dessert item, but the cream cheese icing had a much more distinct flavor than the cake itself did. Even separating the cake from the frosting, it didn’t taste like much of anything besides sweet. It was pretty much just a vehicle for the icing. The icing was great, though. But you can put that on a chocolate cake and actually taste both cream cheese zip and chocolate at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/36 "2008-11-17T14:02:05Z")
I actually prefer my red velvet cake with a good vanilla buttercream, rather than the cream cheese icing. The cream cheese will do, but my favorite place makes it with buttercream and it’s heavenly. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/37 "2008-11-17T14:03:48Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > I actually prefer my red velvet cake with a good vanilla buttercream, rather than the cream cheese icing. The cream cheese will do, but my favorite place makes it with buttercream and it’s heavenly. Yes! When I make it I use the vanilla buttercream and it is far superior to the cream cheese icing IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/38 "2008-11-17T14:14:53Z")
> [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](#): > > Share? Thirded, please? Chocolate stout cake… Mmm… ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/39 "2008-11-17T15:13:12Z")
> [@ShermanAter](#): > > My sister in law makes a wonderful velvet cake. > > The morning after the first time I ate it I thought I was dying though. I can imagine - must look like a horror show in the toilet the next morning… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929/40 "2008-11-17T17:10:39Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > Thirded, please? > > Chocolate stout cake… Mmm… Am I the only one who can distinctly taste the Guinness in a chocolate stout cake? And yes, it’s heavenly. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-red-velvet-cake-to-me/472929.md?page=3)