What is red velvet cake?

My friends and I went out to sushi the other night and after so much deliciousness, I just had to top the night off with a giant red velvet cupcake from QFC - it was actually the giant one, they have regular ones too. ;) Anyways, my friend from South Africa didn't know what red velvet cake was, and in trying to explain it to her, my understanding was that it was basically a slightly modified chocolate cake, I realized that I had not real idea of what distinguished red velvet cake batter from other batters. Could you even make it from scratch, or was it simply a pre-fab delicacy such as twinkies or hostess cupcakes...?


The google search

First, I searched for: "What is red velvet cake?" I love asking google questions...
The first few hits came up with a dictionary definition, the wikipedia article and a bunch of recipes. The definitions were actually quite vague, basically a moist, rich cake red in color. Hmm.... seems like that could describe a lot of cakes as long as you add food coloring...

The wikipedia article of course provided more information. Well, actually the first few lines didn't. They just repeated the general definition. It did mention cocoa though as a possible ingredient and that the amount of cocoa varies - this could be why the definition was so vague. Apparently chocolate cake often took on a red color due to a chemical in the cocoa reacting and turning reddish. Later, when cocoa was rationed folks started adding food coloring with beets or later just food coloring to enhance the color of their cakes.


In another link to a yahoo food review, one lady made the distinction between a chocolate cake and a red velvet cake - the red velvet has less cocoa. She described the cake as "a devil's food cake that's made with cocoa, white vinegar, baking soda, and buttermilk". She also claimed that it had to be made with food coloring, not beets... which would mean that (after doing a brief side search), the cake wouldn't have been "authentic" until 1906... but other articles claim that beet juice was regularly used to not only color the cake but to keep it moist also. All this seems even more confusing, and what is devil's food cake then?!? (Sorry, I'm a bit of a cake dunce apparently).

So I did a search for "what is devil's food cake?". [No, it's not just any cake shaped like a dragon or other awesome creature, but it sure is a cool cake]


And what did I find!?! It's basically a different kind of chocolate cake!?!?
ok. So basically my understanding is that red velvet cake is a version of devil's food cake, which is a version of chocolate cake. Devil's food is different from normal chocolate cake in that it uses cocoa instead of melted chocolate and it uses baking soda, which can turn the cocoa in the cake a slightly red color when it reacts with the cocoa (as long as the cocoa is not "dutch-processed"). Red velvet cake is basically a devil's food cake with food coloring added and vinegar - which does not appear to be a staple part of a devil's food cake. At least now I have a reasonable explanation, and I wasn't too far off either. It's just a special kind of chocolate cake with food coloring. ;)