It took a while to get around to, but I finally made the recipes in my red velvet cupcake collection and did some red velvet cupcake comparisons. I tend to make more cakes than cupcakes, so while I was at it I also did some red velvet layer cake recipe comparisons.
The best red velvet cupcakes were from a Bobby Flay Throwdown recipe and the best red velvet cake was an adapted version of Aunt Mildred's.
The photos below are some old ones I took of a red velvet cupcake from Hey Cupcake! in Austin.
Susan says
There seems to be alot of hype lately about red velvet cake and/or cupcakes. I just can't bring myself to pour all that red food coloring into a cake or cupcake recipe. So..I've ordered beet powder to give that a try. Stay tuned! I did make a Chocolate Beet Cake that turned out pretty good!http://thecookiescoop.blogspot.com/2009/08/chocolate-beet-cake.html
Susan
Lisa says
Looks yummy! I love Red Velvet cake so I would assume the cupcakes would be just as delightful!
Lisa says
Love this post! I see some Red velvet cupcakes in my kitchen in the near future.
Martha in KS says
My mother used to make me the Waldorf Astoria cake each year for my December birthday. My aunt in Texas first mailed her a piece of this cake with the recipe & mom told us it was Beet Cake, so we wouldn't want a taste. This had to be over 40 yrs. ago & I vividly remember that one little piece of cake wrapped in foil, and five little sets of eyes looking at it. I think this is the "original" red cake, though it was redder because we used the Red Dye No. 1 that is now banned. This buttercream is unusual, but delicious.
Waldorf Astoria Cake
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1- 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk*
2 Tbs (one 1-oz. bottle) red food color
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup Cocoa
1 tsp salt
1- 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbs white vinegar
1 Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 13x9-inch baking pan (or two 8" layer pans).
2 Beat butter and sugar in large bowl; add eggs and vanilla, beating well. Stir together buttermilk and food color. Stir together flour, cocoa and salt; add alternately to butter mixture with buttermilk mixture, mixing well. Stir in baking soda and vinegar. Pour into prepared pan.
3 Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Frost.
4. Icing: In saucepan, whisk together ¼ c. flour & 1 c. milk & ½ tsp. salt until smooth. Cook until it forms a thick paste. Cool (covered) at least two hours. In mixer bowl beat 1 c. margarine and 1 c. granulated sugar until like stiff egg whites, then beat in flour mixture, a pinch of salt and 2 tsp. vanilla. (original recipe used Crisco but margarine tastes much better). I prefer the cake after icing has been chilled.
Carol says
Anna,
I had great results with the Paula Deen recipe!
HeartofGlass says
You know I've never had Red Velvet Cake! I know I sound awful, but I can't get past the idea of willingly eating food dyes, even natural ones. If I made one, I'd probably make something like this:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/let-them-eat-healthier-cake/
Katrina says
Ok, I'm totally digging the vision of Super Fly Guy in a pie now! 😉
AnnaBanana says
I've always used the Magnolia recipe with very little alteration...except for cream cheese frosting instead of buttercream. I don't really get the point of Red Velvet without cream cheese frosting. I think these always turn out delish....BUT I was recently in NYC and had the opportunity to try the real thing, and ICK. Seriously, dry, too dense, even the buttercream wasn't good buttercream.
Ellen says
Dawn, Whole Foods carries a natural food coloring dye (package of 3 or 4 colors) in the baking section. I'm with you, I don't like to use food coloring if I don't have to.
Amy says
I never buy self-rising, even when a recipe calls for it!
C L says
The Magnoia recipe is very tasty. I made it often, and it's worth buying self-rising flour just for it. 🙂 Although you could also make drop biscuits with SR flour, too... 🙂
Louise says
The Cupcake Bake Shop's "myth" busting is somewhat incomplete in that she fails to explain why Devil's Food Cake is red. The alkaline baking soda does in fact "Dutch" the regular cocoa, which is what most Devil's Food Cake recipes call for. And if you use Dutch process cocoa the result will be an even deeper color.
And read the the first comment by Rose Levy Beranbaum's collaborator on Round 2 of the other blog, here. It's regarding technique, etc. http://thebakemore.blogspot.com/2009/12/red-velvet-taste-test-round-2.html
Anna says
Kristen, at least you didn't write "Shoe Fly Pie". Now I'm thinking of a little fly with shoes on.
Dawn, it's always nice to have a "natural" alternative in your back pocket. There's a red velvet cake made with beets somewhere in my archives.
Louise, I'm done with that pie but I'd be curious to see the cupcake recipe.
Louise says
Watch what you say about Shoofly Pie. And spell it right. 🙂 I live almost at the epicenter of Shoofly Pies. One slice of a great wet bottom shoofly is good once in a while. I have a great recipe for shoofly cupcakes. 🙂
dawn says
you know i'm looking for a red velvet recipe that uses a natural form of dye with great color. i'm not too fond of the whole red dye thing. wish me luck eh? i tried reading the ingredients from whole foods red velvet, but you needed a pad of paper to remember it all.
Kristen says
Woah, definitely distracted spelling this morning! They're??? Haha. Anyway THEIR cupcakes are pretty tasty. Especially the ones with cream cheese.
Kristen says
I love hey cupcake. They're cream cheese frosting is quite good, and it's nice to be able to get just a cupcake (or two), rather than try to figure what to do with a whole batch.