Red Velvet Marble Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my red velvet cake not red enough? ›

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.

Historians believe that red velvet cake originated during the Victorian era. Cake flour wasn't around yet, so vinegar was used to tenderize cakes. When vinegar was combined with non-Dutch processed cocoa powder, the cake turned a reddish-brown hue.

What flavor is red velvet? While there are cocoa undertones, red velvet is not chocolate cake because it balances both chocolate and vanilla flavors. It contains cocoa but not the same quantity as traditional chocolate cake, resulting in a more subtle cocoa flavor and tanginess due to the buttermilk and vinegar.

Mix cocoa with vanilla essence. Using a toothpick, add gel food colouring gradually in small amounts along with a little extra water. Step 2: Mix the red food colouring, cocoa and vanilla essence mixture well to form a paste.

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.

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.

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.

The “red” in red velvet cake is multifaceted — historically, the red tint in the cake came from either the chemical reaction between unprocessed cocoa and vinegar (according to Southern Living) or the use of beet sugar.

Unfortunately some red food colours have a bitter taste because of the ingredients used, particularly the colourant red #3 (E127). So it may help to check the ingredients of the red food colour or use a red food colour paste that is sold as "no taste".

Why is red velvet cake expensive? ›

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.

The flavor of blue velvet cake is the same as a red velvet cake—fluffy vanilla cake with a hint of chocolate slathered in tangy cream cheese frosting. It is easy to make a blue velvet cake from scratch with a blend of cocoa powder, vinegar, buttermilk, and bright blue food coloring.

The color of red velvet cake comes from the use of red food coloring, not the cocoa powder. If your cake is coming out more brown than red, it is likely that you are not using enough food coloring. You could try adding more food coloring to your recipe until you achieve the desired color.

You need air to make anything fluffy. If a cake does not rise it means the air is not inculcated into it.. Using baking soda or powder will do the trick for cakes. If you did not put enough you might end up with flat cake.

There's a big chance your butter and sugar will over-cream, meaning the butter will trap more air than it should. As the batter bakes, that extra air will deflate and leave you with an overly dense cake. It's all science! For best results, cream butter and sugar together for about 1-2 minutes.

Are you using dutch-process cocoa? Dutch-process is cocoa treated with an alkali, which makes the cocoa darker. Traditional recipes for red velvet cake call for natural cocoa, not dutch process. It always includes an acid such as buttermilk, which causes the anthocyanins in natural cocoa to turn red.

Both red velvet cake and pink velvet cake are typically dyed with red food coloring. Pink velvet cake just uses a little bit less of it to achieve a lighter hue. In actuality, the biggest difference between red velvet and pink velvet cake is one of flavor.

Per Wikipedia, red velvet is “traditionally a red, red-brown, crimson, or scarlet-colored chocolate layer cake, layered with ermine icing.” Traditional red velvet cake recipes actually do NOT use food coloring! The chemical reaction that occurs between cocoa and acid like buttermilk yields a subtle red color.