email this pageIf you have never made Red Velvet Cake, you are in for some surprises. To begin, you will use more red food coloring for a single recipe that most cooks use in a lifetime, and by the time the cake goes into the oven, your hands and every piece of equipment that touches the batter will temporarily be red. When the cake is baked, it will be slightly less red, and once it is frosted with creamy white frosting, it will be an absolute show stopper.
According to one story, Red Velvet Cake was originally on the dessert menu at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. In the 1920s, a California woman ordered the cake and was so taken with it that she wrote to the hotel asking for the recipe. The hotel chef sent it to her, along with a bill for more than $300. Because the woman did not ask if there would be a charge for the recipe or how much it would be, her lawyer advised her to pay the bill. In a case of sweet revenge, she began giving the recipe away.
Although many Red Velvet Cakes, sometimes called Waldorf-Astoria Cake or $300 Cake, are frosted with cream cheese frosting, our favorite version calls for an unusual buttercream frosting that starts with a milk and flour paste, which is beaten into the butter. It spreads like a charm and is delicious with the soft, velvety cake. If you serve the cake to guests, someone is bound to ask for the recipe. In the spirit of sharing a good thing, we suggest you hand it over free.
Red Velvet Cake
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
2 tablespoons red food coloring
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
Frosting:
1 1/3 cups 2 percent lowfat milk
7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup salted butter, softened
1 1/3 to 2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2. In a mixing bowl, beat together vegetable shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour alternately with buttermilk; beat until blended. In a small bowl, whisk cocoa and food coloring together with a fork until smooth; add to batter and beat until evenly blended. In same small bowl, dissolve baking soda in vinegar and beat into batter. Pour into prepared pans and spread evenly; bake 8-inch layers 20 minutes or 9-inch layers 25 minutes, or until a tester inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire racks. Remove cakes from pans, peel off wax paper and finish cooling on racks.
3. To prepare the frosting, whisk milk and flour until flour dissolves. Pour into a small saucepan; cook and stir over low heat 2 to 3 minutes or until thick. Cool to room temperature.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Add confectioners’ sugar and beat until smooth and creamy; beat in vanilla. Fill and frost cake. Serves 16.
Recipe by Jean Kressy, "Relish the American Table," Dec. 24, 2006.
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