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Red Velvet Cake
Since Raven The Cake Man, a young African-American baker in newly stylish Fort Greene in Brooklyn, delivered his stupendous Red Velvet Cake to me and Joan Hamburg on our Saturday Weekend program, the subject of Red Velvet Cake keeps coming up. Well, Joan keeps bringing it up. And since it came up once again when Michael and Jane Stern were on our program last week, I thought I would share the recipe I have had in my files for a number of years, and the story of this wonderful all-American cake.
There are three basic versions of cake by this name, although all use a combination of buttermilk, baking soda (sometimes baking powder, too) and vinegar as the leavening. (Buttermilk, an acid, when combined with baking soda, which is alkaline, react together and bubble up, forming carbon dioxide gas which pumps up -- or leavens -- the cake. It's a common, old-time formula that predates the invention of baking powder.)
One version of the recipe, as outlined by James Beard in his book "American Cookery" and recorded in many other books in my collection, uses a half cup (1 stick) butter as shortening, which I felt turned out a rather dry, uninteresting cake. It is essentially a devil's food cake, although devil's food is most often made with at least a small amount of brown sugar, not all white.
Another version that I found repeated in several sources, uses anywhere from 1/2 to 1 cup of solid white shortening.
The third version, which is by far the fattiest but certainly the only one with a texture that you could call "velvet," is made with a considerable amount of vegetable oil, which, along with the soft, fine cake flour, and tenderizing buttermilk-soda leavening, produces a cake that nearly melts in your mouth.
I found the oil version in African-American sources only, including "Celebrating Our Mother's Kitchens," a fund raising book published by The National Council of Negro Women.
Most recipes are, indeed, found in community or charity cookbooks written by amateurs. The cake is what is called a "grass roots" recipe because no one knows who created it and the professional food writers mainly ignore it.
The cake that initially sent me on a quest for the story and recipe was made by Lillian Hinds, the good friend of my former WOR producer Margot Jordan, and also African-American. Lillian learned to make the cake from a friend and she sort of just does it. She knows the ingredients off the top of her head, but it was hard for her to give precise mixing directions. I must say, even so, that Lillian's hands made a better cake than mine did on my first try.
The following recipe, which I devised after consulting many recipes, is a slightly adjusted version of Lillian's -- with 25% less oil and much more cocoa. As for the amount of red food coloring, some recipes call for as much as two one-ounce bottles. Some recipes ask for only one teaspoon, which merely tints the faintly chocolate-brown cake so that it has a red cast.. Lillian uses one bottle, which produces a vivid red color. Since food coloring now costs more than $2 an ounce, and this is otherwise an inexpensive cake to bake, I suggest using no more than two teaspoons of food coloring. Besides, a strong, artificial red color can be a turn-off these days,. Of course, you can add more than I specify or none at all.
Raven The Cake Man
708 Fulton Street (at South Oxford Street)
Brooklyn, NY
(718) 694-2253
All layer cakes: 8-inch-$35, 9-inch $45
Red Velvet Cake
Other names for this cake are Red Devil's Food Cake, $100 (and up) Cake, and Waldorf Cake.
Makes one 9-inch cake
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cocoa
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons to 1 bottle red food coloring (1 ounce), optional (see header note)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 cup buttermilk (fat content not important)
Cream cheese frosting or boiled frosting (optional)
Prepare 2 9-inch pans by greasing lightly then flouring lightly or greasing them then lining the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper. (No need to grease the paper.)
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa. Set aside.
In another mixing bowl, with a hand-held mixer on low speed, or with a wooden spoon, beat the sugar and oil together until well blended.
Add eggs, one at a time, blending well between additions.
Blend in food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar. Scrape bowl down with a rubber spatula.
Alternately blend in flour and buttermilk , using about a third of each at a time and scraping sides of bowl a couple of times. Make sure not to overbeat or use the electric mixer on high -- this will toughen the cake.
Immediately pour into prepared pans and bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
On a wire rack, cool cakes in pans for 5 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and cool completely on rack.
Fill and frost as desired, or not at all. For presentation, you want to sprinkle unfrosted cakes with confectioners' sugar.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
16 ounces (1 box) confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Milk, as needed
In a mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until softened and smooth.
Add butter and continue to beat until softened, smooth and well incorporated with the cream cheese.
Beat in the sugar a little at a time, then the vanilla.
If frosting is too thick to spread easily, beat in cold milk a tablespoon or so at a time until of spreading consistency.
