Waldorf-Astoria Red Velvet Cake Recipe | CDKitchen.com (2024)

FAQs

What does the vinegar do in red velvet cake? ›

White Vinegar: It sounds like a strange ingredient in a cake, but it is essential in a red velvet cake. This recipe calls for baking soda to leaven the cake (make the cake rise). The small amount of added vinegar allows the soda to do its best work.

World War II

Baking products like sugar and butter were a part of the rations. As a result, some bakers chose to use beet juice in their cakes. You can still find red velvet cake recipes today that call for beet juice. The red color of the beets makes the cake have a more delicious appeal.

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.

Unlike many people claim, its not just tainted chocolate cake. 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 “velvet” in red velvet cake refers to the style of cake and its small, tight-crumbed texture, compliments of the vinegar and baking soda in this recipe. I have baked red velvet cake without this addition of baking soda and vinegar and found the result is a sturdier cake (not-so-velvety) with less flavor.

You can substitute white wine vinegar for white (sometimes called distilled) vinegar in the red velvet cake recipe. It is used in such small quantities that the subtle difference in flavor will not be noticed. In fact, any unseasoned vinegar should work.

Our answer

There are two possible reasons why the cake tasted metallic and these are the bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) or the red food colouring. Bicarbonate of soda can have a metallic or soapy taste if it is not used alongside acidic ingredients.

Today, red velvet cake is made by combining cocoa powder, butter, sugar, eggs, and flour as well as buttermilk, vinegar, and red food coloring that gives the cake its iconic red tint. In a classic red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting is paired but the cake can be really be frosted with anything.

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.

What is another name for red velvet cake? ›

Red velvet cake — also known as “red Waldorf cake,” “Waldorf red cake,” “Waldorf Astoria red cake,” “red carpet cake,” “red mystery cake,” “flame cake,” and “$300 cake” (or a range of other dollar amounts) — is a layer cake with a subtle chocolate flavor and a distinctive bright red hue produced by a considerable ...

While the hotel long claims to having served its first version in the mid-1920s, culinary journals including Southern Living report the red velvet cake first appeared at the Waldorf in the mid-1930s — around the same time ritzy Toronto department store Eaton's starting serving red velvet cake.

Besides what buttermilk does to the taste and texture of these red velvet cupcakes, it also helps to activate the baking soda. So does the vinegar. Don't get scared, a touch of vinegar is normal in red velvet desserts—and no, you cannot taste it. If you don't have white vinegar, you can use apple cider vinegar.

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.

Supposedly, Red #40 is edible and safe, but research has shown that it does increase hyperactivity in some children, and at concentrations as high as those found in Red Velvet cake, I would question how safe it really is. My recommendation would be to opt for chocolate or vanilla flavors when you need a cake fix.

When vinegar reacts with baking soda, it creates carbon dioxide bubbles, which act as leavening agents. So as the batter bakes, these tiny bubbles expand, causing the cake to rise and giving it that light, airy texture we all love.

Red velvet cake is as striking visually as it is delicious. There's just something about that deep, red cake against the cream cheese frosting. Mixing the baking soda with the vinegar is an interesting technique that you don't see very often in cakes, but its purpose is to generate extra rising power.

The reason that you'll see apple cider vinegar or vinegar in a lot of vegan baked goods is because it helps with the leavening. It's an acid and it helps the cakes to rise.

Its cake batter gets a tangy kick from buttermilk and white vinegar, perfectly offsetting the sweetness of the classic cream butter-cheese frosting. And what makes it special is the cake's super fine, tender crumb that just melts in our mouth!