Little Missing Red Velvet

By: Elizabeth Rees | April 27 2010
Posted in Find It - From All Over

While I was shopping for another birthday cake, I asked myself a question I thought I should have known the answer to: Where did Red Velvet Cake come from? I always understood Red Velvet Cake as a specialty in the American South, but is the South truly its home or was it one of those transplanted specialties that gradually turned into a Southern staple? If so, where in the South did it originate?

Photo: Elizabeth Rees

Origins

I was not successful when I started my research. In fact, I became even more confused. Some writers claim it originated from the famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York in the 1940's, as an urban legend claims the Hotel once charged a guest hundreds of dollars for the Red Velvet recipe. The guest later retaliated by sending the recipe to her friends as a type of chain letter. Others state that the cake originated from Lady Flora McCrea, the Queen of Eaton's department store in Canada also back in the 1940's. The most popular answer to the question is the South, but no specific location is mentioned in any documentation I found and yet, the cake is mostly associated with the region.

I compared some of my tasting experiences, both in the North and South, to see if one tasted more authentic than the other. Specifically, does the cake taste heavily rich, colored with a vibrant red and covered with decadent cream cheese frosting? To my memory, the Red Velvets in New York aced the rich flavor but lacked the appearance. The cakes in the South most certainly have the appearance but sometimes the icing tastes a little too light.

Conclusions

Therefore, I can only conclude that the home of Red Velvet Cake remains to be an unsolved mystery. That is, unless we discover historic proof somewhere. In the meantime, I will just stick to my roots and call Red Velvet Cake from the South.

What's your favorite recipe for this decadent cake? (If you don't have one, take a look at this recipe.)