RED VELVET CAKE

This American classic is the real McCoy and a showstopper on any side of the Atlantic.

By baking and posting this, I realise I am moving aside from the more Cornish and English cake recipes but it’s good to be different now and then!! I have dozens of relatives and cousins in the US, all forebears of those Cousin Jacks, who left Cornwall in the 19thC!

Red Velvet cake was developed in NY City in the 1920s although the South says otherwise. Before the age of food dyes the red colour was achieved by using beetroot dyes. Yes, I agree the ingredients are quite decadent - but you would only make it for a special occasion!

Oil or grease 2 x 9” loose bottom sponge tins and line the bases with parchment. Turn your fan oven to 160C.

8 oz butter, softened

12 oz caster sugar]

1 teaspoon red food dye [I used concentrated gel, cochineal does not really work]

2 large eggs

10oz SR flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bicarb of soda

8 fl oz buttermilk 

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste [or essence]

1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Buttercream for filling [half butter to icing sugar and a little vanilla paste]

Cream the butter and sugar until really light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the food dye. Mix until well incorporated and the colour is even and you have achieved the correct level of “redness”.  In a jug mix the buttermilk, vinegar and vanilla. In a basin weigh the flour and add the salt and bicarb. Add these 2 alternately into the mix, a quarter at a time. Mix well.

Tip the mix into the tins and bake for about 30 - 35 mins. [if you want to be exact then weigh the mixture so that both tins are equal - I didn’t.] Cool in the tins for at least 5 mins then invert them onto racks. When cool, sandwich together with the buttercream and dust the top with icing sugar. Very impressive.

I took [and slightly adapted] this recipe from a great recipe book entitled The United Cakes of America. When I was on holiday in San Fransisco about 4 or 5 years ago I was wandering around the shops of Union Sq and bought it in the fantastic Williams & Sonoma Cookshop.  Over the next year or more I will bake some more from it!!