Red Velvet- Nice And Red, On The "healthy"?
Baking By irishchick47 Updated 18 Mar 2013 , 8:13pm by BakingIrene
I have a cake, where the brides family wants red velvet, but it they don't want a lot of food colouring used. i know i can use beet juice, and it turns out ok, but its not as red, as red velvet usually is (duh) i was wondering if anyone else had any experinece/suggestions making red velvet really pop, without a lot of food colouring.
What about one of the natural colors, not sure where you are based, but you can get them in Whole Foods in the US made by India Tree.
no and my suggestion about the beet juice is research it because it's not a straight line to keep it red
there's a post on here where bakingirene pointed to a great blog about it--much trial and error
the op was in poland and food color was not available nor kool aid nor a lot of things we have plenty of
but kool aid is a possibility for you but of course it is loaded with food color too
I've been meaning to try a more natural alternative to all the red food coloring in red velvet cake as well. I increased the amount of cocoa and decreased the amount of food coloring in my recipe and that worked ok, but I would still like to not use artificial colors at all. I've been looking at a company called Seelect:
Their products look really interesting, but a bit pricey. I would definitely charge a little extra, even just $5, to recoup some of the cost of the natural coloring.
I've been meaning to try a more natural alternative to all the red food coloring in red velvet cake as well. I increased the amount of cocoa and decreased the amount of food coloring in my recipe and that worked ok, but I would still like to not use artificial colors at all....
my mom used to make a red devil's food cake for my birthday eons ago ;)
i found the recipe recently--don't know where it is right now
but it is a fully chocolate cake and the chemical interaction between the ingredients makes it red devil's food a pretty red brown so this would be the least red food color obviously but more of a reddish dark brown--it's pretty and delicious
might can google for it --maybe i can find my copy...
ok --this is not it but it's funny
it's from the betty crocker picture cookbook copyright 1950 it's the second printing of the first edition
so on page 132 under the 'black devils' food cake recipe it give this variation
Red Devil's Food Cake
To any chocolate cake, add red food coloring: 1 tsp for Large, 3/4 tsp. for Small cake, Makes red without tasting of soda
they give two sizes for most every recipe large & small
but here they are encouraging the color to improve the taste
i just think that's kind of ironic all things considered
we're all now trying to get away from it and perhaps go back to the baking soda in the
cake batter making the chemical reaction to red -- 
no and my suggestion about the beet juice is research it because it's not a straight line to keep it red
there's a post on here where bakingirene pointed to a great blog about it--much trial and error
the op was in poland and food color was not available nor kool aid nor a lot of things we have plenty of
but kool aid is a possibility for you but of course it is loaded with food color too
To find that posting, I used google "red velvet beet" and there are several good blog postings that come up. You use canned or roasted whole beets not juice, pureed so they make a nice moist cake. You also need to skip the extra baking soda if you want red-beet cakes to stay red (soda turns that stuff blue...)
ok --this is not it but it's funny
it's from the betty crocker picture cookbook copyright 1950 it's the second printing of the first edition
so on page 132 under the 'black devils' food cake recipe it give this variation
they give two sizes for most every recipe large & small
but here they are encouraging the color to improve the taste
i just think that's kind of ironic all things considered
we're all now trying to get away from it and perhaps go back to the baking soda in the
cake batter making the chemical reaction to red --
I have that cookbook and love it... what great recipes to use as bases...
To find that posting, I used google "red velvet beet" and there are several good blog postings that come up. You use canned or roasted whole beets not juice, pureed so they make a nice moist cake. You also need to skip the extra baking soda if you want red-beet cakes to stay red (soda turns that stuff blue...)
thank you, Irene--great information!!!
To find that posting, I used google "red velvet beet" and there are several good blog postings that come up. You use canned or roasted whole beets not juice, pureed so they make a nice moist cake. You also need to skip the extra baking soda if you want red-beet cakes to stay red (soda turns that stuff blue...)
So what amount of beets would you use in the cake? And when you say skip the 'extra' baking soda, I'm assuming you mean skipping the soda entirely?
So what amount of beets would you use in the cake? And when you say skip the 'extra' baking soda, I'm assuming you mean skipping the soda entirely?
How much beet puree you use depends on which blog you choose from the google search results.
Some blogs have covered the acid vs base issue as part of their recipe development.
I'm referring to the baking soda and vinegar mix that is folded in at the end of traditional red velvet batter. You would have to use baking powder instead of baking soda.
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