Red velvet cake

Red velvet cake is a red-colored layer cake with cream cheese or ermine icing. The origin of the cake is unknown, although it is popular in the Southern United States and has been served as a dessert at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria hotel since the 1920s. Both the hotel and Eaton's in Canada claim to have developed the recipe. Ingredients of the cake include baking powder, butter, buttermilk or vinegar, cocoa powder, eggs, flour, salt, vanilla extract, and, in most modern recipes, red food coloring. The cake's popularity declined after Red Dye #2 was linked to cancer in the 1970s but has since improved in the United States and elsewhere.

In Canada, the cake was popular in the 1940s and 1950s. It was featured at restaurants inside Eaton's department store in Toronto and was widely attributed as a favorite of Flora Eaton. The Lunch with Lady Eaton cookbook refers to it as an "exclusive sweet recipe of Eaton's." The Waldorf-Astoria also claims to have created the cake.

The batter is made by first creaming together butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. Separately, cocoa powder and red food coloring are combined and then integrated into the mixture. The remaining ingredients are then added, mixed, and blended. After pouring the batter into a cake pan, the cake is baked for 20 to 25 minutes and cooled before adding icing between the layers. Most modern recipes call for a cream cheese frosting, but some recipes call for ermine icing.

Chef Pamela Moxley's beetroot variation has beetroot, lemon juice, and goat cheese as additional ingredients. According to the variation's recipe, beetroots are chopped into pieces about the size of finely diced onions and added to the batter. The recipe uses non-acidic Dutch process cocoa powder, so lemon juice is added to increase the acidity and help produce a bright red color. Goat cheese is then combined with the cream cheese frosting. Other cake variations include red velvet bundt cake, doberge cake, ice cream cake and cheesecake. Non-cake alternatives of red velvet cake include red velvet cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, lattes, teas, waffles, Pop-Tarts, and sundaes. The flavor has also been used in protein powders and vodkas and the scent in candles and air fresheners.