the most disgusting cake on the planet? I have discovered a cake flavor even more disgusting - blue velvet.

If you follow college basketball, you know that the University of Louisville (Go CARDS!) is playing in the Final Four tonight against the University of Kentucky. Yep, it's an instate rivalry. Anyhoo, I've been making red velvet and blue velvet cupcakes this week for fans.

Sooo, just for fun, I held out some of the batter and did NOT put the food coloring in it and baked it up. It was actually quite tasty! It's the coloring that is blech!

That sounds totally disgusting. I discovered a great way to make a blue cake by mixing blueberry icing fruit into white cake batter. No additional coloring necessary and it tastes amazing!

I just never understood the hype about red velvet. Sometimes I think there's something wrong with me but now I understand...it's them! (just joking- comment made in love... My close friends are RV fans!)

I have to jump on the bandwagon of people who just don't get the love affair people seem to have with red velvet cake! I wonder if you left out the coloring, and don't tell them the flavor, would they still be so bowled over by it, or is it the exciting bold red color everyone loves?? I've tried many recipes, thinking maybe I just didn't have the "true" RV cake; I even made one that came out of an old cookbook that seemed to be all about quality, from scratch food. No better. Just more trouble! Oh well, I won't hate you for loving RV, I just don't get it.

I'm doing pink velvet cupcakes for Easter. You get that light tang without anywhere near the amount of food coloring.

I actually like my red velvet cake recipe, but I use half the food coloring it calls for. Blue velvet sounds nasty, but it's probably the blue color that's off-putting.

I actually used 1/6 of the amount of color called for in the recipe. I still hated it.

Blech!!! Blue velvet sounds even worse! I hate red velvet cake!

Mine is just a buttermilk cake with only 3 tsp of cocoa powder, and I love buttermilk cakes. And maybe I like it because I am in the minority... I hate chocolate. I think the buttermilk and the hint of cocoa powder are good. Also in vegan baking, I have learned what flavor benefits that vinegar brings to a recipe. In the right combinations, I really like it.

In my experience, I have found that the copious amounts of RFC are overkill. A little gives a nice red color.

I am now selling retail cupcakes in a local restaurant. We have a full cupcake bakery display for cash and carry cupcakes. Red Velvet is by far the favorite and sells the most, in fact it consistently sells out. But my RV is unique and I have not seen my recipe on any menu in any bakery across the country, and I research constantly.

I agree with dawnybird about the love affair. Although I call it a "cult" following.

After I sold my northern bakery and cafe, we moved south and opened a small bakery. Customers kept asking for red velvet cake. "What's red velvet?" I always asked. Not one customer could define it. This was in the early 1990's so no internet search help available. Eventually I added red food color to my chocolate cake. It was moist and delicious but not really red velvet. Southern customers complained, northern customers loved it.

Years later, when I learned what red velvet meant, I developed a tasty recipe using red nut liqueur without any food coloring.

MimiFix,
Where do you get your red nut liqueur? I'd really like to try that in a RV cake. I just can't get over the notion of the whole bottle of red color that my recipe calls for.

dynee, I wrote about the product as a FAQ http://bakingfix.com/thefix/?p=5014 It imparts a red tint, not a bright red color, which is more appetizing for many customers.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't "get" RV! I thought it might have just been the recipe I tried, so I tried four different recipes and had my friends all come taste test. Guess which one won? The one without buttermilk/vinegar and with a buttload of cocoa powder added. Hmmm.

ha! you guys are weird! I love red velvet lol

Personally, I think the reason so many people in the south love red velvet cake is the Cream Cheese Icing! I have several friends who would eat a brick if it was covered with cream cheese icing.

It depends on the recipe, too...but if you take out the buttermilk and the vinegar it isn't a red velvet cake anymore. I prefer the recipes that use butter instead of oil, the oil makes it too greasy for me.

My best suggestion for getting great color--any color--without the addition of flavor--is to use the dry powder colors, Crystal Colors, from sugarpaste.com

They're FDA approved, Kosher, and are pure food colors--much better quality than the standard primary dry colors readily available in bakery supply stores--and the range of colors is amazing.

My "velvet" cakes are a white buttermilk or sour cream cake with white chocolate instant pudding mix. With the Crystal Colors, I can offer any color "velvet" that someone wants.

Rae

Yeah, I thought it was funny that everyone voted for the cake that was least like what RV is supposed to be. Basically it was a chocolate cake without the buttermilk and all the extra cocoa powder. Which makes me think maybe I shouldn't even mess with RV if everyone likes chocolate better anyway.

In my retail location, each week the demand for RV is getting to be more and more. It is now at 30% of total sales.

I'm getting more people specifically asking for it too, it's interesting.