Velvet Cake History

928 Words2 Pages

Red Velvet Cake
After hours of researching the history of Red velvet cake, I seem to have found that no one really knows exactly when and where Red Velvet Cake originated, I found that Velvet cakes have been being made since the 1800s. The recipes called for cocoa and soften flour and make finer texture cakes and it was the smoother texture that gave the cakes the name Velvet cakes. One of the most notable mentions of Red Velvet cake was in 1943 in Irma S. Rombauer’s “The Joy of Cooking” which was one of the first nationalized mentions of the Red Velvet cake. During my mission to find about the history of Red Velvet Cake I found that a time during World War II, food was being rationed, the items that people needed for baking (for example, …show more content…

“In 1938, there was an Act passed, the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, by the government that enforced regulations on food coloring, according to Nicole Feretich from Penn State University “the red dye (Red 40 in most cases) can actually be harmful to one’s health”. It’s been said that the dye itself has been known to cause cancer”, anyhow Adams decided that red velvet was going to be his big ticket to the bank, and a great market to be in and started selling extracts.” I read that you can still today find the mix from the company in its old vintage packaging. There was also the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City who also made claims that it was the birthplace of the Red Velvet cake, as it was a popular menu item in the 1950s but there has been an ongoing argument from some southerners who will argue that the Red Velvet cake originated in the south. I couldn’t find a clear answer to where and when Red Velvet Cake really originated, but we do know that somewhere between the 1920s and the 1950s, Red Velvet became very popular in the United States. Traditionally Red Velvet cake is a red colored, layer cake with cream cheese icing. The cake has a fluffy texture which is from the gas that is produced from the reaction of alkaline buttermilk with acidic vinegar and/or acidic …show more content…

I asked one family member, the oldest living family, Dorothy Roberts if there were any difference in the tastes of the cake now and the cakes my grandmother use to make and she said and I quote “oh yes there is a difference, she said that the cakes today are nowhere near a moist and flavorful as the ones my grandmother use to make, she doesn’t know why because my grandmother kept most of her recipes a secret”. I myself, have always wondered what made Red Velvet Cake, Red Velvet Cake? You know like what made it any different than a chocolate cake? I now know the science behind The Red Velvet Cake and how to make one from scratch. In the past I have made them with store bought box cake mix and butter cream or cream cheese icing, this year for the holidays I plan to make the cakes from scratch for Thanksgiving. I plan to make Red Velvet Cheesecake and for Christmas I want to try a Red Velvet Yule Log. I’m not going to tell anyone that I’ll be baking them from scratch to see if anyone will be able to distinguish between the box mix and the scratch recipe even though I will still have to use food coloring as I highly doubt that I will come across the correct type of cocoa. This should be very interesting, I hope they’ll be a success, and a recipe that I can

More about Velvet Cake History

Open Document