So I'm sure this has been asked before but I don't see it. What is red velvet, is it just choclate cake with red food coloring or is there more to it? All of the red velvet recipes I see on here look basicly like that. If that is a true red velvet then can I just use my favorite chocolate cake recipe and add wilton no taste.TIA

Red Velvet actually is a very light chocolate cake...only a few TBSP of cocoa in the whole batch.

I can't stand all that food color LOL I don't know who came up with it....haha...but I just use the Duncan Hines red velvet mix and then use a box of chocolate pudding mix as well.

I would just use that because if you try to turn a chocolate cake into red velvet, its like a TON of red color and you might end up either not making it red enough, or messing up the consistency of the cake.

A Red Velvet cake I would not call a chocolate cake. It has it's own distintive character. A true Red Velvet cake does not taste like a chocolate cake, but more like a "milk-malt" or "choco-malt" flavor.

I think you can use your regular chocolate cake recipe, however, you need to replace the weight of chocolate to compensate by adding the correct amount of flour. I have two recipes I use for Red Velvet cake, one use butter and shortening and the other oil. The recipe using the oil, I use more often.

Hope this helps.

Remember, it's not a chocolate cake.

Cheers!

In the recipes that I grew up with they included buttermilk and vinegar. The acidic reaction causes the cocoa to turn a reddish brown. Some recipes include beets and others just have alot of red food coloring.

When I would watch my mom make the "from scratch" version with buttermilk and vinegar, I found it rather interesting to see the cake turn red.

Do a search in the recipe section for Sarah's red velvet, it's the best I have tasted and very easy to make. Nothing at all like a chocolate cake.

I just had to find the recipe. Here is moms recipe!



1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 oz. red food coloring
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda sprinkled over 1 Tbsp. vinegar
Preparation:
Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans. Heat oven to 350°.
Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Sift flour, salt & cocoa together. Add alternately with buttermilk. Beat after each addition. Stir in baking soda and vinegar mixture, then blend in the food coloring. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the cakes bounce back when lightly touched with a finger.

I remember watching an episode of "Throwdown" on the Foodnetwork and there was a competition with Red Velvet cake. Bobby Flay did win the throwdown, but....... I went online and got his recipe, PLUS Cake Man Raven, the man in the competition had posted his Southern Red Velvet Recipe. I did like the flavor of Bobby's recipe better, when it was eaten with hours of being baked. However, by the next morning it was hard as a rock. Cake Man Raven's recipe was still fresh and moist a week later. And I have to say, I've been hooked on it. Since it is on his website I can't imagine it's not ok to post it here. The only thing I changed is that I use half the red food coloring he uses, and get the same results. But his recipe is to die for.

SOUTHERN RED VELVET CAKE

Dry Ingredients:
2 ½ cups cake flour
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Fine salt
1 tsp. Cocoa powder

Wet Ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp. White distilled vinegar
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 oz. Red food coloring
1 tsp. Vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In small bowl sift together all dry ingredients. Set aside. In large bowl, add liquid ingredients. Using an electric mixer, beat on medium speed until well incorporated. Slowly add dry ingredients to bowl until all ingredients are combined.

Yields three 9-inch layer cakes.

Bake @ 350 degrees for 20 - 30 minutes.

The original Red Velvet cakes had NO food coloring in them. There is some debate over whether beets were used to add redness to them or not, but from the research I've done, the original "red" color was no where near the bright, deep, rich red of modern Red Velvet cakes. In the original versions, the "red" was a product of the small amount cocoa-powder (regular, not Dutch-processed) reacting with the buttermilk, vinegar and the baking soda. True Red Velvet cake has only a hint of chocolate flavor, the predominant flavor is sort of tangy-sweet, produced by the buttermilk and vinegar.

Wow everyone thanks so much!! I'm glad I posted here instead of just winging it,lol. This is totally different than I thought it was. Now I'm off to the store for supplies. Thanks again everyone!!

I have been using the Southern Red Velvet cake receipe from the Cake Man Raven and it is absolutely the best. I have found that when there is too much cocoa, it's difficult to get that Red Velvet cake taste.