Colorful Foods Day 2
A. What makes Red Velvet Cake red?
B. Food coloring and sometimes beetroot.
Originally, some of the reddish color may have occurred naturally. One of the ingredients in the cake is cocoa. Cocoa possesses a natural pigment called Anthocyanin, which can appear red or purplish. In early red velvet cake recipes, before the cocoa was more thoroughly pre-processed, bakers may have seen the red pigment come out when mixed with vinegar, baking soda, or buttermilk (again because of chemical reactions). Regardless, most ended up adding some sort of food coloring anyway!
When I was a child, I did not like red velvet cake. Besides being red, the recipe that was used in the 1950s caused the cake to look shiny, almost like plastic. Later I found out that I was allergic to red dye, so it was good it looked strange!
ReplyDelete