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Red Velvet Cake Recipes

Enjoy Trying These Delicious Forerunners Of Red Velvet Cake Recipes

If you're searching for red velvet cake recipes, then you are already familiar with these spectacular dessert cakes.

These delicious dessert cakes are rich-tasting layer cakes that feature a delicate chocolate flavor and thick, white-as-snow icing.

What really sets them apart, however, is their eye-catching appearance when cut. Their interiors are an unexpected, blood-red color!

These cakes are most popular for serving on special occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries. Indeed, they make the occasion! You will want to try a red velvet cake recipe and see for yourself.

The History Of Red Velvet Cake

The history or origin of red velvet cake recipes remains unknown. However, this unusual cake has long been a favorite in the American South. A popular urban legend links the cake's origin to New York's famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, but it cannot be substantiated, and the hotel persistently denies the alleged connection.

Strangely, I could not find red velvet cake recipes in any of Grandma's old recipe books. They were simply nonexistent. However, I did find an old recipe for Philadelphia red cake which bears a striking similarity.

Some food historians think the cake might have originated as a devil's food cake. Chocolate devil's food cakes became very popular in the early 1900s, and it's said that a chemical reaction between the old-style baking sodas and processed coca powders sometimes gave the cake batter a distinctively reddish tinge. It's believed that some cooks enhanced and encouraged this phenomenon by adding a generous amount of red coloring.

I found some vintage devil's food cake recipes and published them below so you can taste test the theory, but the distinctive red coloring cannot be duplicated using today's ingredients, so you'll need to resort to food coloring.

Philadelphia Red Cake Recipe

This old-fashioned recipe for Philadelphia red cake is taken from "The Perry Home Cook Book" compiled by the Ladies of Perry, Kansas, and vicinity, published by The Independent Publishing Company, Oskaloosa, Kansas, in 1920.

Cream 1-1/2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup butter; add-beaten yolks of 3 eggs, 1/2 cup sour milk, 1-1/2 cups flour. Dissolve 2 squares of chocolate in 1-1/2 cups boiling water; add 1 teaspoon soda to chocolate. Let cool; add to cake batter; lastly, fold in well-beaten whites of 3 eggs. Add to it red coloring. Flavor with vanilla. --Ida Repstine

How To Make A Red Velvet Cake

The Philadelphia red cake recipe as given above makes a delicious cake, but if you want to adapt it to closely resemble a "red velvet cake recipe," simply reduce the amount of water called for to 1/2 cup and increase the amount of sour milk or buttermilk to 1 cup, to make a richer batter, and add 1 tsp white vinegar and 1 tsp salt to the list of ingredients.

Tips For Making A Red Velvet Cake

The recipe calls for sour milk. To make milk sour, simply stir in about 1 tsp of white vinegar to the milk. However, I substituted buttermilk in the recipe and the cake turned out delicious.

Cream the 1-1/2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup butter. Make sure they are well creamed till the mixture is almost doughy in texture. Don't skimp on the beating as it helps to make a smoother, richer batter. It also helps if the butter is quite soft when you begin. You can substitute shortening in place of butter or use as I did, a mixture of 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening.

To the creamed sugar and butter, add the 3 beaten egg yolks, 1 cup buttermilk, then the 1-1/2 cups flour and 1 tsp salt. Blend well.

Note: For a richer, denser cake, use only 1/2 cup boiling water instead of the 1-1/2 cups the old recipe calls for.

After you melt the 2 squares (2 oz) of chocolate in 1/2 cup boiling water, add 2 oz red food coloring and stir until the mixture is smooth and uniform in color. The original recipe doesn't give a quantity for the red coloring, but 2 oz is what most red velvet cake recipes call for. It seems like a lot, but a lesser amount of coloring simply won't make the batter red enough to be distinctive.

Add 1 tsp of white vinegar and 1 tsp baking soda to the melted chocolate and stir until it's well mixed. It is normal for the soda to foam. When cool, add to the cake batter.

Lastly, add 1 tsp vanilla and fold the 3 beaten egg whites into the batter. The batter fills two round, 8-inch cake pans.

You may split the 2 cakes to make 4 layers by using a clever method my Grandma often used: Place a thread (or dental floss) around the circumference of the cake and while holding the ends of the thread tightly, one in each hand, gently but firmly pull them apart thereby separating the cake evenly into 2 layers. To make 3 layers, you can simply pour the batter equally into three 8-inch cake pans and bake.

Bake in greased cake pans at 350ºF for about 20 to 30 minutes or until done.

Ice the cake with a thick layer of your favorite white icing and generously spread the same icing between each cake layer. White icing is traditional with red velvet cake recipes as white provides an eye-catching contrast to the deep-red cake.

Old Fashioned Devil's Food Cake Recipes

These old-time recipes for devil's food cake are taken from "The Perry Home Cook Book" compiled by the Ladies of Perry, Kansas, and vicinity, published by the Independent Publishing Company, Oskaloosa, Kansas, circa 1920.

Some food historians believe that these recipes might have inspired today's red velvet cake recipes. Try them and see what you think.

Devil's Food Cake Recipe
1 cup butter; 3 cups sugar; 4 eggs (whole); 1 cup sour milk; 1 cup cocoa, 1 cup hot water; 4 cups flour; 1 teaspoon soda. Pour hot water over cocoa and soda and stir in last of all. Be careful that water is boiling. Flavor with vanilla.

Filling: Boil 1-1/2 cups sugar, very small amount of water beaten in the whites of 2 eggs, with ground raisins. --Mrs. H. B. Dougan

Devil's Food Cake Recipe
1 cup sour cream; 1-1/2 cups sugar; 2 eggs; one-third cup hot water; flour; 1 teaspoon soda; 3 tablespoons cocoa; 1 teaspoon vanilla.

Filling for above cake: 2 cups brown sugar; 1/2 cup sweet milk; 1 tablespoon cocoa; butter size of a walnut. --Mrs. Galen O'Roke, Oskaloosa, Kansas

Devil's Food Cake Recipe
This makes a unique Christmas cake recipe.

1 cup butter; 1 cup brown sugar; 1 cup white sugar; 1 cup sweet milk; 1/2 cup molasses; 4 cups flour; 1/2 cup chocolate; 1/2 cup boiling water; 4 eggs; 1/2 teaspoon cream tartar; 1/2 teaspoon soda; 1 teaspoon each of allspice, cloves and cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg; 2 cups raisins; 1 cup citron; 1 cup English walnuts. Ice with caramel icing. --Mrs. John Hackett

Devil's Food Mocha Filling Recipe
4 tablespoons butter; 1/2 cup powdered sugar; 1 tablespoon cocoa; 4 tablespoons coffee; cream butter, sugar and cocoa; then stir in the coffee little by little. --Mrs. W. E. Cain

Enjoy experimenting with the homemade cake recipes that might have inspired today's popular red velvet cake recipes. You will love the taste of these delicious, old-fashioned cakes.

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My name is Don and I've dedicated my site to bringing you the best in vintage dessert recipes.

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