“Lady in Red” : A Celebration of Old and New Red Velvet Cake

“Lady in Red” is an incredibly moist, subtle red velvet cocoa cake that is boosted by a silky filling of bittersweet chocolate ganache and crunchy chocolate pearls. It is finished with a creamy vintage vanilla frosting that is not too sweet and lets the delicate flavors and textures of this cake shine through. This cake is pretty enough for Valentine’s Day, special enough for a birthday, but easy enough to make for a regular old Tuesday! Hope you enjoy it too!

Why This Recipe is Special to Me

This recipe has been a long untapped treasure in my family archives. It was a favorite of my paternal grandmother, Marguerite and her sister, Liz and a frequent flyer at all of their family celebrations and summer barbecues. My Aunt Liz, a professional cook and baker, reserved the interior sleeve of her favorite cookbook to handwrite only her most cherished recipes, and this cake was prominently present. While I have heard about this recipe referenced in family folklore, I don’t ever remember anyone in my family making it, so I thought it was high time to give it a try.

Some Modifications

I’ve always felt that aside from its crimson coloring, red velvet cake can suffer from an identity crisis when it comes to its flavor profile. Too vanilla to be chocolate; too chocolate to be vanilla; and a bit too overpowered by a tangy cream cheese frosting to be able to decide.

After examining and experimenting with this recipe, my goal was to preserve and honor as much of the vintage recipe as possible, while enhancing the moisture of this cake as well as to bump up the chocolate flavor.

Among some of the recipe tweaks, I swapped out the shortening for grapeseed oil, added some coffee and added a bit more granulated sugar, which is a tenderizer, to the cake recipe. The added moisture resulted in a gloriously tender crumb.

I wanted to play up the delicate cocoa flavor a bit more. Adding coffee to the recipe not only helped with the moisture of this cake, but also helped anchor down a deeper chocolate flavor. Additionally, I added a bittersweet chocolate ganache filling and Dark Chocolate Pearls in the filling layers to not only deepen the flavor, but also to bring some textural contrast. I am so happy with the result – subtle, sophisticated and just sweet enough.

In the Red

Traditional red velvet cake did not originally include a food colorant. The recipe calls for natural or unsweetened cocoa (vs dutch processed), which contains an antioxidant that reacts to acidic ingredients (like buttermilk and vinegar) causing it to turn dark red. Over the years, food coloring has been added to create brilliant red colored cake.

When I’ve made red velvet cake in the past, I seen most recipes include a whole bottle of food coloring. While certainly memorable in its vibrance, I prefer an earthier red that feels like a first cousin to chocolate.

I was introduced to food coloring powder when I visited Paris earlier last year. I had never seen it in the states before, but it is available for purchase on line. The colors that powdered food coloring produce are so much richer and complex than any liquid or gel color I’ve ever used. And they are so deeply concentrated that a little goes a long way! For this recipe, I used about a tablespoon of powder (vs. a whole bottle of liquid) and the cake was a deep and beautiful burgundy red. I highly recommend trying powdered food coloring if you haven’t yet. Regardless of the type of colorant that you use, I recommend start with a little and add to it to custom tint the batter to your preference. I have found that the color darkens a bit as the cake is baking.

The Icing on the Cake

The frosting is an old-fashioned, Creamy Vintage Vanilla Frosting, or “Ermine” frosting, which begins with a roux made on the stove with cooked flour and milk. After it is cooled, it’s whipped into softened butter in a stand mixer to create a magical substance. It’s light and fluffy with none of the heaviness, or at times cloyingly sweet quality, that some American buttercreams can have.

Ermine frosting dates back to the late nineteenth century. Until digging into this recipe, I hadn’t realized that this frosting was the original companion for red velvet cake before cream cheese frosting became the norm. Because red velvet is such a subtle flavor, I have always found the tang of cream cheese overpowering. Not sure when or why it switched, but this fluffy OG frosting allows the gentle flavor of the cake to really shine through.

Ingredients

Notes

CAKE FLOUR: is important for this recipe. It has very low protein which means it develops little gluten creating an incredibly tender crumb. If you use all-purpose flour, it will not impact the flavor, but the texture will be denser.

BUTTERMILK: No buttermilk? No worries! Just add 1 TSBP of white vinegar to a cup of whole milk and let it work it curdling magic. Don’t forget, this recipe still calls for a TBSP of vinegar. So, even if you DIY your buttermilk, still add the additional vinegar to the recipe a written.

UNSWEETENED VS. DUTCH PROCESSED COCOA: This recipe calls for natural, unsweetened cocoa. This cocoa has a greater acidity to it to balance the baking soda and encourage a proper rise. It also has a lighter, almost reddish color as opposed to the deeper brown hues of dutch processed cocoa.

GRAPESEED OIL: This is my favorite oil with which to bake. But any neutral oil, like vegetable is fine to use.

POWDERED FOOD COLOR: This hyper-pigmented powder is so concentrated that one TBSP is equal to a whole bottle of liquid coloring. I also find the colors to be richer and more nuanced than any gel or liquid color I’ve tried.

VANILLA PASTE: I prefer vanilla extract paste but liquid vanilla extract is perfectly wonderful in this recipe.

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE GANACHE: I love what this deeper silky chocolate layer does to enrich the character of this cake. And while anyone who’s made ganache knows how quickly it can come together, if you found yourself to be pressed for time, I also think Nutella would be nice swap out. The hazelnut flavor will change the overall flavor profile of the cake, but I think it could be a nice complement.

I also recommend measuring ingredients with a scale for the best accuracy and consistency.

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