Food History: Red Velvet Cake

The 1989 drama *Steel Magnolias* is widely credited with popularizing not only Julia Roberts but also red velvet cake. The dessert steals a wedding sequence in which it appears with uncharacteristic gray icing and in the shape of an armadillo, played for laughs. The woman who made it has poor taste, and well, you get the idea. We’re here to talk about cake, though, not movies that will absolutely make you cry.

In 2007, food writer Angie Mosier dubbed red velvet the “Dolly Parton of cakes”—a little bit tacky, but you love her. While I do not agree with that description of the modern-day saint Dolly Parton, there is no doubt that red velvet cake has become a widely known treat in recent decades. You can find it in classic cake form in boutique cupcake shops and even in red velvet-flavored protein bars (the less said about those, the better). However, it’s also grown popular for very different reasons during Juneteenth celebrations.

Many people assume red velvet cake has its origins in the South, but it’s not quite so simple. What makes red velvet cake red, or for that matter, velvet? And just how many bogus origin stories can exist for a single dessert? Let’s find out.

Hi, I’m Justin Dodd. Welcome to Food History. Let’s get the entertaining but highly suspect origin story out of the way. As the legend goes, a woman was dining at New York City’s famed Waldorf Astoria Hotel in the 1920s when she was bowled over by a layer cake with a deep red center and contrasting creamy white frosting. She asked management for the recipe, and they were happy to oblige her for a modest fee. In some versions of this tale, it’s a hundred bucks, while in others it’s 350 or even a thousand dollars. The story suggests that it was seen as rude to ask a hotel for a recipe, and the Waldorf was making their displeasure known by sharing the recipe and then sending the curious customer a massive bill. Outraged, the guest supposedly distributed the recipe for free to as many people as possible, sometimes publishing it in a newspaper or handing it out to people on a bus.

Another version has the woman charging people ten bucks each for the recipe until she recouped her costs. There are examples of the woman being from different regions of the country, depending on where the story was being told. This probably didn’t happen, but it’s worth mentioning because the tale seems to have helped red velvet cake take on the alternative name of the Waldorf Astoria cake. Initially, the hotel denied it was ever one of their cakes, but as the letters asking for the recipe kept piling in, that story conveniently changed. Now it’s a classic part of the Waldorf Astoria legend.

A more credible red velvet tale begins in the 1940s when food was being rationed due to World War II. This was not great for the Adams Extract Company, which sold food coloring as well as flavor extracts. The company had gotten its start in the early 1900s when founder John A. Adams marketed his vanilla flavoring by going door to door with his sons. At the time, vanilla was delicate, and you weren’t supposed to bake or freeze it. Adams added ingredients like licorice to make it more stable and gave it a money-back guarantee. Business was good until the war hit.

Supposedly, in an effort to boost sales of food dye, Adams Extract began issuing point-of-sale posters and tear-away recipe cards in supermarkets. The recipe was for red velvet cake, which naturally called for red food coloring. There was even a catchy slogan that accompanied the recipe: “The cake of a lifetime.” Unfortunately, accounts differ on which family member came up with the idea, and timelines in the various versions of the tale tend to be fuzzy.

According to Stella Parks in her book *Brave Tart*, there was a 1911 recipe for velvet cocoa cake, which was very similar to devil’s food but replaced the chocolate with cocoa. As that recipe spread, people started baking the cake with acidic ingredients like buttermilk, which began to give the cake a reddish hue—not the bright red of modern red velvet, but more red than a normal chocolate cake. This cake got the name Red Devil cake, with no food coloring in sight.

In 1922, someone wrote into an Indianapolis newspaper asking why their Red Devil cake was sometimes red and sometimes brown. In response, no one suggested adding food coloring. Then, in 1938, Mrs. Raymond Smiley of Columbus, Indiana, sent a recipe into Betty Crocker for a cake she invented called red devil’s food. Her secret ingredient was red liquid vegetable coloring. Betty Crocker gave the seal of approval, and eventually, the recipe got published as real red devil’s food cake.

It seems we entered a period of great confusion, an era historians call the “Red Velvet Fog.” In 1943, Irma S. Rombauer’s *The Joy of Cooking* included a recipe for red devil’s food without food coloring, while a 1942 syndicated newspaper columnist put a teaspoon of the additive in her devil’s food. In the 1950s, cakes labeled red velvet often didn’t have any food coloring, but as the 50s gave way to the 60s, the lines between red velvet and red devil’s food started to blur. They are different cakes, but at one point, recipes for both Waldorf Astoria red velvet cake and Waldorf Astoria red devil’s food cake were circulating.

How do you create a red or even reddish cake without food coloring? The answer lies in science. Contrary to popular belief, a velvet cake isn’t named for its appearance but its texture. Bakers in the 1800s dubbed cakes “velvet” when they were moist and smooth. This was often achieved by adding ingredients like cornstarch, almond flour, or cocoa. When you mix cocoa with vinegar or buttermilk, you can get a slight red tinge to the mix because unprocessed cocoa harbors anthocyanin, a pigment that changes color depending on pH levels. When anthocyanin mixes with an acid like vinegar, it gets redder.

At some point, someone decided to turn up the color, either for fun or because Dutch cocoa, which had grown in popularity, was responsible for less acidity in the mix than raw cocoa. Vegetable food coloring became a popular choice to enhance the saturation. However, some chefs cannot bear the thought of using food coloring in cake, so they add color naturally—beets or cherries can do the trick. Others believe the true secret to red velvet cake is in the dye.

Some very hard red velvet battle lines have been drawn, but most everyone agrees that simply putting red coloring into yellow cake mix is not permissible. The recipe has to use cocoa to be classified as a legitimate red velvet cake. If you do not use cocoa, then you’re just dyeing a vanilla cake red.

The U.S. wasn’t the only country gripped by red velvet mania in the 20th century. The cake became a staple at Eaton’s, a chain of department stores with dining rooms popular in Canada. The red velvet cake recipe was said to have originated with Flora McCree Eaton, known as Lady Eaton, who inherited the chain. In fact, it had been purchased by Eaton from an unknown source. She insisted her employees never gave the recipe away, but they did—only after Eaton’s closed permanently in 2000.

Back in the States, red velvet cake was becoming more entrenched. It began popping up as a competitive entry in state fair contests, rarely mentioned in newspapers in the 1950s. By 1960, it was getting a lot of press. Red velvet cake started appearing on school lunch menus and during gatherings for Easter and Christmas. However, not all this coverage was positive. In 1976, after the FDA announced a ban on red dye number two due to safety concerns, word spread that making red velvet cake might be a little thornier. Mildred Coleman of the FDA noted that some people used two whole bottles of coloring to make the cake, implying that wouldn’t be a great idea.

Despite that fleeting scare, red velvet continued to thrive. After *Steel Magnolias* made a co-star out of the cake, New York’s Magnolia Bakery (no relation) took it a step further by offering red velvet cakes and cupcakes. The surge of trendy boutique bakeries popping up throughout the country in the 2000s made red velvet a menu mainstay. For proof, I point you to the 2002 wedding of America’s sweethearts, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, who dined on a towering red velvet cake during their reception. Sadly, the marriage did not endure.

Red velvet cake has also played an important part in cultural celebrations, especially in Black American families. That’s because red-colored food is a common sight at Juneteenth gatherings, which date back to the 1865 emancipation of enslaved people in Texas. The color is thought to symbolize the blood shed by enslaved people, though others suggest it symbolizes resiliency and joy. Strawberry soda, hot sauce, and even hot links dyed red pop up frequently.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when red velvet cake became a table fixture for Juneteenth. A recipe for devil’s food cake with cocoa that included red vegetable coloring appeared in the 1948 cookbook *A Date with a Dish* by author Frida De Knight. Many Black Americans were likely familiar with the dessert long before *Steel Magnolias*, but it’s often harder to track family traditions than it is to note the efforts made by public-facing companies with an incentive to market their culinary contributions.

One piece of anecdotal evidence: red velvet was evidently a part of enough celebration menus that author Adrian Miller told the *Washington Post* he was criticized for not including it in his 2014 book *Soul Food: The Surprising Story of American Cuisine One Plate at a Time*. Miller stood by the conclusion that the cake was a relatively recent addition to Black American cuisine.

Red velvet cake has become one of those treats that hit the zeitgeist in a major way. In addition to cupcakes and protein bars, at various points, you’ve been able to find red velvet Pop-Tarts, red velvet brownies, and even red velvet-scented candles. In 2010, there was even a red velvet-encrusted chicken dish courtesy of the chefs at American Cupcake in San Francisco. If you’re in Texas, you might spot the red velvet ant, which isn’t an ant at all but a wasp that has evolved to look like an ant. Nature’s weird.

In 2013, Adams Extract capped red velvet fever by offering a commemorative package consisting of cocoa, flour, and red dye—all the basic ingredients they promoted in supermarkets decades earlier. More recently, they released a plant-based food coloring made of beets.

So why do we love red velvet cake? Maybe because it wears its decadence on its sleeve. There’s no mistaking red velvet cake for anything but a total indulgence. The slightly unnatural color signals that this probably isn’t going to be great for you, and we do not care. Cake is meant to be enjoyed, and few cakes broadcast that as brazenly as red velvet. It’s delicious and unapologetic—something I aspire to be. Thanks for watching!