I made red velvet cupcakes tonight. To be honest, I have never seen the lure to red velvet cake. It's just a white cake with a tiny bit of cocoa powder and a whole ton of red food coloring. What's the point? Anyways, I wanted to see what the hype was all about so I found
Paula Deen's recipe because, afterall, she is the queen of southern cooking. Guess what, folks... I was extremely underwhelmed. I'm going to try another recipe this week and see how that comes out. The cake part was a little dry and I thought it had a funky flavor. Maybe because I didn't do exactly what the recipe called for. I was a little distracted. Or maybe that's just what they are supposed to taste like. They looked pretty though. I did the whole "paint the pastry bag with food coloring to make a cool striped effect" trick. Do you know that trick? I'm not one to keep secrets, so I'll tell you if you really want to know. I did it with blue coloring so it could be all patriotic (and my frosting isn't that yellow. The lighting was really bad).
Here are some mistakes I made:
- I only had 1 ounce of red food coloring instead of 2. It looked as though 1 was enough though.
- I didn't read the directions all the way through before diving in (rookie mistake #1, I should know better) so I just made it like a normal cake and didn't mix the baking soda with the vinegar. But really, that wouldn't effect the flavor, would it? It would only effect how the cupcake rises. But whatever.
- I didn't have vanilla. Well, I did... but I wasn't at home when I made them and I was too lazy to go get it (I was a whole 20 feet away at my neighbors house). That was probably what went really wrong.
Lessons learned... Read all directions before starting, make cupcakes while the baby naps instead of while she's crying at your feet, use vanilla no matter the cost.
So, tell me this... If you like red velvet, why? I guess I just have to find a better recipe (or follow this one more exactly), but I just don't see why it's all the rage.
hmmm...very interesting. and funny that there's not as much to red velvet as I thought lol! Sean and I love red velvet cakes/cupcakes...I'm thinking it's mostly due to them usually being super moist and the awesome cream cheese frosting. But now I kinda feel stupid after reading that there's no special magic to making a regular cake become red velvet. lol. thanks weez. ; )
ReplyDeleteI have always felt leary of trying red velvet, the color is SO intense, it makes me suspicious! LOL!
ReplyDeleteSo Ashley loves red velvet to the point that she wanted that as our wedding cake. I hate because the one time I had it the the person making the cake thought that olive oil and veggie oil couldn't make that much of a difference (it DOES!), so my opinion is kind of tainted I think. Ashley said she loves it because she feels like its smoother than most other cakes, and she enjoys the fact that you can use any kind of frosting.
ReplyDeleteThe only red velvet cake I've ever had that I continue to think about to this very day is from Amy Ruth's soul food restaurant in NYC. I think their cake is less about it being "red velvet," because like you I don't see what the big deal is, and more about it being an awesomely awesome moist and delicious slice of cake. I looked up the recipe, which was shared on the Today show by head chef, Carl Redding, and it's not much different than the Paula Dean recipe you used...except for the use of shortening not butter. Hmmmm...not sure how I feel about that little tidbit of information. That said, we can all try to duplicate the best red velvet cake I've ever had, but I think it's all in the baker's touch. For what it's worth, here's the link to the recipe. You can compare.
ReplyDeletehttp://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/9123488/ns/today-food/t/get-your-soul-power-soul-food/