Exploration of Velvet Cake

At one point, I don't really remember why now, I wanted to find the history of red velvet cake.  My research pointed me to a recipe in the The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896, which is affectionately known as the original Fannie Farmer cookbook due to her being the author.  It contains the oldest printed recipe for velvet cake that I have come across.  Of note, it is not a “red” velvet cake.  My curiosity turned to what makes the cake “velvet”.

First, then, I decided to compare the velvet cake to a regular cake recipe of that period (Farmer).  Here is a comparison of ingredients:

Velvet Cake	Chocolate Cake
½ cup butter	½ butter
1½ cups sugar	1 cup sugar
4 eggs, separated yolks & whites	2 small eggs, separated yolks & whites
½ cup cold water	½ cup milk
1½ cups flour	1frac13; cups flour
½ cup cornstarch	None
4 tsp. baking powder	2½ tsp. baking powder
⅓ cup shredded blanched almonds	None
None	2 oz. chocolate, melted
None	½ tsp. vanilla

The table above reveals the differences in ingredients.  The velvet cake uses more egg, more flour, more baking powder, water instead of milk, cornstarch, and almonds {used as a topping (Farmer 423)}, whereas the chocolate cake adds vanilla extract.

The instructions also differ.  They both start by creaming butter, adding sugar and well-beaten egg yolks.  For the chocolate cake, the egg whites are beaten stiff then added followed by the milk and the sifted flour/baking powder.  The velvet cake adds the egg whites later, proceeding by adding the water and the sifted flour/cornstarch/baking powder.  Finally, the egg whites are beaten stiff and added.

We can surmise from these differences that the velvet cake will be much fluffier than the chocolate cake.  The extra baking powder will add more gas, and the egg whites will not have been beaten down because they were added last.  Where, then, did the red come in?

I attempted to find my previous research to no avail, so I hit the Ætherweb and came across a wonderfully detailed history of red velvet cake.  It seems velvet cake exists in two different timelines.

The first timeline is of the velvet cake.  Avey lists an earlier source for Victorian velvet cake recipes, which comes from the August 1871 issue of The New Dominion Monthly.  It reads:

Velvet Cake.--One pound of sugar, one pound of flour, half a pound of butter, four eggs, one teacup of cold water, one teaspoon of cream of tartar, half a teaspoonful of soda.  Flavor with extract of lemon.  Beat the sugar and butter to a white cream, dissolve the soda in the water, and sift the cream of tartar into the flour, mixing thoroughly.  Add to the butter and sugar the pound of flour and the water; beat it all well.  Beat the eggs--the yolks first, and then the whites--to a stiff froth; beat them together for a minute, and stir into the cake.  Flavor with a teaspoonful of extract of lemon, and beat the cake well for about three minutes.  Bake an hour.  This will make two loaves, and is the nicest cake I know of--better than pound cake.  It may be flavored with nutmeg and spices, or with raisins and currants, or be made into delicious chocolate cake by being baked in layers, and filled with chocolate frosting.  It makes a nice jelly cake. (“The Home”)

As we can see from this recipe, the thought of putting chocolate into the cake batter had not yet occurred.  This cake has the same qualities as the 1896 velvet cake, although a few technique changes have come along.  The red color attributed to velvet cake came as a chemical reaction (Avey) between early chocolates {which did not use alkali}, an acidic liquid {like buttermilk}, and an alkali {baking soda}.  Reviewing the two Victorian recipes, there are only two potential acidic ingredients:  extract of lemon and cream of tartar (Weston).  I now have the ingredients for an initial trial of true red velvet cake.  Meanwhile . . .

In the other timeline, the red velvet cake that we associate with that name has a completely different history.  According to Avey, a red chocolate cake was created at the Waldorf Astoria in 1959 and was simply called “Waldorf Red Cake”.  The “velvet” was added by a supermarket chain in the 1960, and the rest is urban legend history (Avey).

Conclusion:  Modern red velvet cake is not a true velvet cake because it includes food coloring and dairy product and does not separate the eggs.  True velvet cake was probably never red because I have no evidence as of yet to show Victorians put acids in their chocolate cakes.

So, why did I tag this post as “truffles”?  Because the cake truffles can be made with any cake batter, and it was an interesting exercise to see if I could come up with red velvet truffles from scratch.

The pictures on the page appear smaller than they are.  To see them larger, simply double click on the picture.  Also, I always welcome your constructive criticism.  Click on the Comment link below next to the icon of a pencil; it may say “No” or have a number in front of it.

References:
Avey, Tori. "American Cakes - Red Velvet Cake." Tori Avey. ToryAvey.com, 9 Feb. 2014. Web. 8 May 2014. <http://toriavey.com/history-kitchen/2014/02/red-velvet-cake-history-recipe/>.

Farmer, Fannie M. "Cake." The Original Fannie Farmer 1896 Cook Book. Italy: Ottenheimer Publishers, Inc., 1998. 420, 423. Print.

"The Home: Selected Recipes." New Dominion Monthly Part II - July to December Inclusive. Montreal, Canada: J. Dougall & Son, 1871. 124. Print.

Weston, Nicole. "What is cream of tartar?" Baking Bites®. N.p., 1 July 2008. Web. 8 May 2014. <http://bakingbites.com/2008/07/what-is-cream-of-tartar/>.