Recipe: Peppermint Red Velvet Cake Roll (2024)

FAQs

What is the best cocoa powder for red velvet cake? ›

The Best Cocoa for Red Velvet Cake Is Natural Cocoa

Natural cocoa is the best cocoa for red velvet cake for two reasons. With a higher acidity, natural cocoa works with the cake's baking soda and buttermilk to leaven the cake to a tight, tender crumb. The results are an almost melt-in-your-mouth tender cake.

While red velvet cake is technically a cocoa cake, there is a key difference between standard chocolate cake and red velvet cake. Chocolate cake recipes traditionally use Dutch-processed cocoa, while red velvet cake uses unprocessed cocoa, a more acidic ingredient that produces a deeper, more intense chocolate flavor.

When bakers added vinegar, baking soda, or buttermilk to their recipes to tenderize the cakes, the acid in those ingredients reacted with the cocoa, which was not Dutch-processed, to give the cakes a red tint. That color became a signature of velvet cakes.

Nicole Taylor, a cookbook author, described red velvet cake as a staple that only came out in Atlanta during special occasions, such as Christmas, Juneteenth, and other big celebrations. The color red also symbolizes joy, which explains its use as a celebration cake today in black communities.

It is starch that will absorb liquid.

That means that too much of it also means a dry-baked good. So to avoid your baked goods from coming out dry, either reduce the amount of flour (by the same amount of cocoa) or increase the amount of liquid in your formula, about 1/4-1/3 cup of liquids per 1/2 cup of powder.

Adding additional dry ingredients to the cake mix like flour, sugar and cocoa powder will improve the structure and texture of the cake.

The trick to using our Red Velvet Color when baking cakes and cupcakes is to lower the pH. Some ways to do this is by substituting baking powder in place of baking soda, using a natural non-alkalized cocoa powder, adding more white vinegar or buttermilk to your red velvet recipe, to achieve a bright red color.

The red food colouring makes the cake batter prone to splitting, and turns everything it touches red; a couple of grams over on the cocoa powder and the cake goes brown instead of a rich red; the cream cheese frosting has a tendency to turn to gloop at the very last minute for no apparent reason; and the list goes on.

Due to the fact that it uses cocoa powder rather than chocolate, red velvet cake is more subtle in chocolate flavor than a chocolate cake. In terms of the cocoa flavor concentration, we like to think of red velvet cake as somewhere between a vanilla/white cake and a chocolate cake.

The buttermilk and vinegar give the cake that tender, light, and fluffy texture. Red velvet cake is also usually paired with white cream-cheese frosting. The white contrast highlights the lush red color, while the tanginess of the cream cheese plays off the buttermilk so well.

Why won t my red velvet cake turn red? ›

A true red velvet cake gets its color from a chemical interaction between the cocoa, the baking powder, and the buttermilk. If your ingredients aren't fresh offer the acid balance is off, or you're using Dutch processed cocoa, it won't work properly.

Many years ago, the red color came from the presence of vinegar and buttermilk reacting with the anthocyanins in traditional cocoa powder. But for most of the last few decades, the red color has been supplied by Red #40 dye, in part because cocoa powder used now is alkalized to neutralize its acidity.

The cocoa powder is used in less quantity and the taste develops by the mixing of vinegar and buttermilk with the cocoa powder. The recipe involves many ingredients in small quantity. The frosting- if used cream cheese is an expensive element in itself. It tastes wow if made at home without using any premix.

The earliest velvet cakes date back to Victorian times, when bakers in both the United States and England began to use cocoa powder to produce cake of a fine, crumbed texture, one that was much softer than the traditional yellow or white varieties.

People prefer red velvet cake over any other cake because it is made of Mild chocolate. A study showed that when the cocoa powder and buttermilk are put together, they result in the red color of this cake. For the mild chocolate flavor, you only need to add two spoons of cocoa powder.

Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder

It makes amazingly rich, dark, and tender cakes, fudgy, moist brownies and cookies, and incredibly luscious frosting.

We would suggest using a cocoa powder from a quality chocolate maker and there are several different ones around. Green & Black's is available in many countries and Valrhona is also widely distributed. In the US Ghiradelli is another good brand (sometimes this is sold as "baking cocoa").

Red Velvet Cake is a popular dish in the Southern United States. Although traditional recipes vary from modern ones, it's now typically made with a small amount of cocoa powder, buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring as staple ingredients.

I use a dark, unsweetened cocoa powder for maximum chocolate richness. You can use Hershey's Unsweetened Cocoa powder if you wish. Remember: the darker the cocoa powder, the richer and darker the cake. Do not substitute the oil for melted butter.