Red velvet cake alternative

371028 Red velvet cake alternative Wed Feb 14 07:31:30 -0800 2007 49 31 Home Cooking 0 2291532 I was thinking of making a red velvet cake today for Valentine's day, but my two year old is sensitive to red food coloring (it makes her skin blister!), so all the artificial coloring in the recipes I've seen makes me quite scared. I was wondering if someone either has an alternative red cake that uses something red to color it (tomatoes, cherries, etc.) or if anyone has tried to make red velvet cake and colored it with something natural...beet juice comes to mind. Any ideas? Wed Feb 14 07:31:30 -0800 2007 36261 sunshinedrop 1 2291628 I don't have any specific advice for you, but the NYTimes article that just came out about red velvet cake mentions that a lot of chefs, also hesitant about the amount of food coloring, use beets (I assume beet juice?) to get the red color. Wed Feb 14 07:57:47 -0800 2007 2291532 64454 kcchan 1 2291632 My daughter has the same allergy. I've tried natural food dyes but it gives the food a funny taste. It takes a lot of dye to make chocolate-y cake red. What about making a red velvet cake w/out the dye but coloring the frosting? I've reduced frozen strawberries, strained and used that in the frosting. Wed Feb 14 07:59:02 -0800 2007 2291532 39874 chowser 1 2291634 I'd say leave the red out of the cake & maybe just tint the icing pink using a natural red substitute: Whole Foods carries a blackberry juice red food coloring (I've read that the original red velvet cakes got their name from the reddish cast of natural cocoa (ie, not dutch-processed). It wasn't very red...but, I know, you want red for St. Valentine's Day). Evans Wed Feb 14 07:59:11 -0800 2007 2291532 22193 evans 1 2292121 There is an old Southern recipe using beets as an ingredient, much like carrot cake. I have never used this version that I found on the internet from a source that generally has pretty reliable recipes. http://southernfood.about.com/od/chocolatecakes/r/bl50726a.htm It's worth a try. It's highly possible that the original cake could have been the beet cake and somewhere along the line somebody decided to fake it using food coloring. The Red Velvet Cake recipe that I use is a red dye-stained photocopy, at least 35 years old, from my mother's original typed index card. I have no idea how long she had had that recipe. Nothing like the one puplished in today's in the New York Times. The icing recipe, using a cooked flour and milk base, is completely unlike those used currently. No cream cheese or buttercream. It's not like any other frosting recipe I have. All recipes evolve over time I guess. Wed Feb 14 10:03:51 -0800 2007 2291532 32444 MakingSense 2 2303188 Sounds like the icing you use is similar to the one my old Southern grandmother would put on her red velvet cakes. As far as I'm concerned, it's the only way to go. If I discover that a red velvet cake is topped with buttercream or cream cheese frosting, I just can't eat it. It simply tastes wrong to me. Sat Feb 17 16:30:43 -0800 2007 2292121 23413 RoseViolet 2 2305739 The recipe to which you link has no frosting. Suggestions? Or would you post your mom's recipe? Sun Feb 18 19:56:58 -0800 2007 2292121 20550 candace 3 2305777 Here's the icing recipe that's been passed down in my family. The recipe comes from Grandma, but the directions are from my mom. 5 Tbsp flour 1 cup milk 1 cup butter or margarine 1 cup sugar 1 Tbsp vanilla Cook flour & milk until thick, whisking constantly. Take off heat & lay plastic wrap over the surface to prevent a skin from forming; cool in refrigerator. Cream together sugar & butter/margarine. Add cooled flour mixture & vanilla & beat with electric mixer for a long time until fluffy. Sun Feb 18 20:23:22 -0800 2007 2305739 23413 RoseViolet 4 2305805 Same recipe as in our family except 3 T flour and the "long time" is specified as "10 minutes." Thank God for the KA stand mixer! My kids won't touch a Red Velvet Cake with a cream cheese or buttercream icing. Ick! Just ain't right. This cake is probably Southern in origin and when it found itself in NYC, cooks began to use cream cheese and buttercreams, which weren't used in the non-air conditioned South. We didn't have cream cheese and buttercreams melted and slid right off cakes in the heat, in addition to butter being expensive and therefore reserved as a table spread if you had it at all. Most Southern cakes had simple glazes or boiled frostings, variations on Italian or Swiss meringues, made with egg whites and cooked sugar syrups. This Red Velvet Cake icing is the only one I know like it. Sun Feb 18 20:39:21 -0800 2007 2305777 32444 MakingSense 2 4929343 I've got my mom's Waldorf Red Cake recipe, as well, Making Sense. We must have the same one, as her frosting calls for the flour-milk base, cooked stove-top. This is simply the best recipe I've had, but then I'm biased towards my mom's cooking :) We had it on all our birthdays and ate a piece of it for breakfast the next morning, as well. Always cold, as she refrigerated the leftover cake once the party revelers went home! Sat Aug 08 16:20:44 -0700 2009 2292121 1100190 padraigin_WA 1 2292301 What about a strawberry cake. You could use frozen strawberries. Here's a recent topic with strawberry cake recipes: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/360513 Or what about an ice cream bombe using laters of pink and white ice creams ... strawberry, raspberry sorbet, vanilla ... or whatever else comes in those colors. Wed Feb 14 10:47:38 -0800 2007 2291532 10264 rworange 1 2292684 Well, I decided to forgo the cake and we made chocolate covered strawberries. I now have a chocolate covered two year old too, but it was worth it. I think I may try a red velvet cake in the coming weeks and instead of water adding beet juice (we like the taste of beets anyhow, I just don't know about chocolate and beets). Thanks for all your replies! Wed Feb 14 12:01:47 -0800 2007 2291532 36261 sunshinedrop 2 2293472 A great deal of the sugar used in the US is made from beets. Chocolate is added to many savory dishes like chili and molé. Think outside the cake box, sunshine! Let us know how it turns out! Wed Feb 14 15:03:40 -0800 2007 2292684 32444 MakingSense 3 2299673 The sugar beet is not red, it is tan. Fri Feb 16 11:10:46 -0800 2007 2293472 12335 cheryl_h 4 2302715 Lots of different colors among beet cultivars. The OP was talking about the taste of beets with chocolate which is why I pointed out that sugar was made from them. There are a lot of vegetables used in baked good - carrot, zucchini and other squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, white pototo, beans, tomato, and more. Since people aren't familiar with a lot of these old recipes, they're surprised at the natural sweetness and interesting textures the veggies add. Sat Feb 17 12:53:48 -0800 2007 2299673 32444 MakingSense 1 2293970 I did an experiment with natural dyes for frosting some years ago, trying beet powder (available at health food stores) and tumeric. Do not, repeat not, ever use tumeric in frosting. Enough to turn it a pretty yellow will leave it tasting like bitter tumeric. The beet powder, on the other hand, left a faint but not unpleasant beet flavor in rose pink frosting. I'd use beets, both fresh and powdered. Wed Feb 14 17:48:30 -0800 2007 2291532 64471 Kevin Andrew Murphy 1 2298945 Okay, you all have convinced me. I'm going to go to the store today and buy some beets and juice them and try to make a red velvet cake with them. I'll post my results soon. Fri Feb 16 08:23:25 -0800 2007 2291532 36261 sunshinedrop 2 2302822 i'm looking forward to reading your report. i've been toying with the idea of a beet-based red velvet cake for a while, as the dye makes my b.f. really sick. i found a recipe online using beets in brownies and thought it might transfer to cake, but i haven't tried it yet. Sat Feb 17 13:51:34 -0800 2007 2298945 11199 wleatherette 1 2303903 hello,good to see all of this ingenuity applied to finding a red coloring alternative, as my wonderful spouse,seeing the NYT article, wants to make the cake now with a healthier color source. Please let us know the results; I will likewise post once we find something and bake. have fun Sun Feb 18 02:19:29 -0800 2007 2291532 11012 moto 1 2304366 I made a red velvet cake with beet juice on Vday. I think next time I would either use more beet juice, or perhaps boil it to concentrate the color? The batter was a lovely violet pink, with brown undertones from the cocoa, but the baked cake was decidedly natural cocoa color, without much red or even pink tone. (I used Dutched cocoa.) it tasted great, though--no weird aftertaste at all, which I always notice with the food coloring version. Sun Feb 18 09:36:14 -0800 2007 2291532 24126 amyzan 2 2304793 hello,because of the chemistry balancing involved with acidity vs.alkoloid, using the dutch process cocoa makes it harder to enhance the redness, and the NYT article speculated that it might be the reason the recipe devloped with the coloring, to counteract that. Deeper red should be possible with non-dutch process cocoa. cheers Sun Feb 18 12:37:43 -0800 2007 2304366 11012 moto 3 3939350 I have made red velvet cake with both 'regular' cocoa powder and dutch-process cocoa powder. The red color was much brighter in the 'regular' cocoa version, and everyone actually preferred the lighter cocoa taste. The dutch-process resulted in a much darker red even with the just the two TBSP cocoa my recipe calls for. In the future, I will only use the regular cocoa. Also, in my humble opinion, the flour/milk 'frosting' is the only way to go with Red Velvet Cake. It's part of what makes it 'special'. Thu Aug 07 16:45:01 -0700 2008 2304793 216811 fizzle3nat 1 2304444 I really don't think beet juice alone is going to give the depth of color. Using whole beets probably will. There are a lot of old Southern recipes that incorporate veggie in them, such as sweet potato cake, squash or carrot cake. There are beet cakes as well. It is highly possible that at some point, coloring was used in a food service situation to produce the color rather than using the traditional vegetable. Remember all the references to the Waldorf Astoria in Red Velvet Cake stories? Perhaps a Southern cook there changed the ingredients... The recipe from the Harlem bakery in the NYTimes this week used vegetable oil rather than solid shortening which was often used in vegetable-type cakes. Just a theory. I'm going to experiment soon with a beet cake from an old recipe. Sun Feb 18 10:04:50 -0800 2007 2291532 32444 MakingSense 1 2304800 The recipe I used specificaly called for alkalized cocoa. I would be interested in a red velvet cake recipe that uses natural cocoa, as I keep it on hand. Wouldn't you have to alter the chemical leavening if you use natural cocoa, as it's more acid? Sun Feb 18 12:41:21 -0800 2007 2291532 24126 amyzan 2 2304941 Most Red Velvet Cake recipes, of which there are hundreds, include acid ingredients such as vinegar and buttermilk. The standard leavening is baking powder. The small amount of cocoa used is not going to make that much difference. Most people use plain old Hershey's anyway since recipes usually just say "cocoa." Non-Dutched. 'My family has been using Hershey's for 45+ years. Sun Feb 18 13:36:44 -0800 2007 2304800 32444 MakingSense 3 2305836 I must have a weird recipe--no buttermilk, no vinegar. It's a lot like a chocolate butter cake, in fact. I've had so many chocolate cakes rise oddly or not hold their rise, that I'm wary of just any recipe involving cocoa and cake batter. Brownies are much more forgiving, and rewarding, IMO. BTW, I beat the hell out of the custard frosting recipe but it remained curdled looking. I even warmed some of it, and beat that, without result. So, I then refrigerated the rest and beat that after it was cool. No dice, curdled looking still. I finally just beat the two experiments together and frosted the cake. It tasted great, and looked funky. I've never had a custard, or gravy frosting (as I learned it) do this before! I'm blaming it on the snow storm. <wink> Sun Feb 18 20:55:33 -0800 2007 2304941 24126 amyzan 4 2305919 No buttermilk, no vinegar? You probably don't have a Red Velvet Cake recipe. How many essentials can you take out of a recipe before it loses its essence? Just because a cake is red, doesn't make it a Red Velvet Cake. That cake is tricky anyway. I blow it from time to time even after 40 years using the same tried and true recipe. Same with the weird icing recipe. Sometime it separates. "Mom, you blew the icing!" We always laugh about the gravy icing too. I've never seen any other like it. It does taste great. I have found that I need to cream the butter and sugar for a very long time to dissolve the sugar or it's grainy. And I have been cooking the white sauce only until it bubbles, not until it gets very thick. Coating the spoon well. The last time, my kids pronounced it perfect. BTW, Google Red Velvet Cake and look at how many recipes there are. They all have about the same ingredients, all about the same - until the New York Times messed with it. I finally checked Wiki and they said that the old original might have included grated beets as I had guessed. So stop worrying about the cocoa. Too many cooks have been making this from the old recipes for too many years to lose faith. You can't live on brownies alone. You'll succeed. Sun Feb 18 21:56:53 -0800 2007 2305836 32444 MakingSense 5 2305950 MakingSense, I'd love to see your recipe & compare it to my family's version from Mississippi. I imagine they're very similar! Do you think it might deserve its own thread? Sun Feb 18 22:37:35 -0800 2007 2305919 23413 RoseViolet 6 2307130 We've probably beaten RVC to death here and would just start the food-coloring-is-poison debate again by starting another thread. Our family recipes are probably just about the same, differing only by which side of the Pearl or Mississippi Rivers we were on. All the ones on the internet are similar only varying in the quantities of the various ingredients. Ours uses: 1 c butter, 1 1/2 c sugar, 2 eggs, 2 oz red food coloring, 1 t vanilla, 1/4 c water, 1 T vinegar, 1 t baking soda, 1 c buttermilk, 2 1/3 c cake flour, 2 T cocoa (I use Hershey's), 1 t salt (plain old Morton's). Use the standard method of making any old cake, i.e. creaming butter and sugger first, adding dry ingredients after the eggs, etc. Two 9" layers at 350 for 25 minutes or 8" layers for 30 minutes. I've never known where Mama got the original recipe. I'm from New Orleans and it's most likely that Mama got it from an aunt of her's who was the baker in that family. Mon Feb 19 10:54:20 -0800 2007 2305950 32444 MakingSense 7 2308088 My family's old recipe is nearly identical. Just a few little differences (there's no water in our ingredient list). The method is slightly different, too. For instance, my grandmother says to mix the vinegar & baking soda in a seperate bowl & fold it into the batter last. As for the food coloring, one of my mother's friends once considered making *purple* velvet cake, but decided against it. :) Honestly, it's a totally unnecessary ingredient. The cake may not be as red, but flavor matters more to me, anyway. Anyone who is nervous about dumping a bottle of food coloring in the batter can just skip it, in my opinion. I have to say, it's a comfort to know that other people are still making this cake the old fashioned way. Everyone I know who has tried my grandmother's recipe says they can't go back to that new-fangled variety with the sickly-sweet cream cheese icing. We need to keep this classic alive! Mon Feb 19 15:20:20 -0800 2007 2307130 23413 RoseViolet 2 2305713 hello,the Times article(nytimes.com) Feb.14 Food &Dining specifically mentioned a reddish compound in cocoa that gets retained in acidic conditions, related to keeping red cabbage from turning black through use of vinegar/lemon acidifying. The piece also mentioned the range of cocoa in different recipes, the paradox being the more cocoa, more coloring as well to keep things red rather than brown(which has a red component as a color). Their recipe used 1/2c. unsweetened cocoa,greater than other versions, and subsequently a lot of coloring(3 oz.). have fun Sun Feb 18 19:44:43 -0800 2007 2304800 11012 moto 1 2311357 Okay, I tried. I looked around for a red velvet cake recipe online and it seems like either they are really hard to make or they are inconsistent for whatever reason. So I thought I would try the beet juice instead of water in my favorite box cake mix--Betty Crocker German Chocolate Cake (I know red velvet cake isn't just a red chocolate cake, but for the sake of the experiment, I wanted to try something that I knew worked and just change this one thing). Well, I used my juicer and got my 1 1/3 cup beet juice and mixed up the batter and got really excited because the batter turned deep crimson red. But when I baked it, it turned brown, just like regular German chocolate cake, just a little darker....bummer! The taste is a little different too, maybe earthier? The taste isn't offensive, just different. So, on the down side, my chocolate cake did not turn red with beet juice. On the up side....I can sneak veggies into cake and make it a little healthier for my family. I just wonder if someone can help me out as to why this happened. The batter was really really red, why did it turn back to brown? Do you think the beet juice browned? Does the color of cocoa deepen as it cooks? Would something in a boxed cake mix do something to the beets? I'm willing to take another try if I can find out what went wrong. Tue Feb 20 13:28:09 -0800 2007 2291532 36261 sunshinedrop 1 2311743 I'm just curious. Would some other fruit/veggie other than beets color the batter ... like strawberry or cherry or ??? Tue Feb 20 14:44:10 -0800 2007 2291532 10264 rworange 2 2313033 I think beets have far more stain power than strawberries, and cherries are very alkaline, so their juice will cook up brown unless acidified? I don't know what other fruits or veggies would have the, well, it's not called pigment, but whatever the color compound is called in f&v. Tue Feb 20 23:04:55 -0800 2007 2311743 24126 amyzan 1 2313029 I found Rose Levy Beranbaum's site, and noticed there was a discussion about RVC there. At the end of the thread, someone asked about beet juice, but Rose said that because cake batter is very alkaline, the red color will bake out to brown. I wonder how much vinegar once would have to add to alter the pH of the batter, or if it's even possible without making a horrible tasting cake! I wish we had a chemist baker on the forum... Tue Feb 20 23:01:54 -0800 2007 2291532 24126 amyzan 2 2313048 Why don't you just surrender? Try making one of the old-fashioned beet cake recipes using grated whole beets? It will get some fiber into your family too instead of just beet juice. Don't you make carrot cake, pumpkin pie and bread, zucchini bread, banana nut bread, and other baked goods using vegetable or fruit solids? I háven't tried it yet but I've read it was the original version of RVC. Tue Feb 20 23:15:22 -0800 2007 2313029 32444 MakingSense 3 2313824 Well, I wanted a cake with some chocolate taste. Maybe instead of making a chocolate cake red, I should try to make a red cake chocolate. I'm just worried that beets won't get as soft as zucchini and bananas do and detract from the texture--I'm big on mouth feel. Wed Feb 21 08:35:21 -0800 2007 2313048 36261 sunshinedrop 4 2313896 RVC has a good chocolate note but not a really heavy flavor of chocolate. You could look at several of the beet cake recipes on the internet and find one with more cocoa. Or just use cocoa as you experiment. I think grating the beets fine would take care of the texture. I'm going to try it next week and if I feel lazy, may use canned beets since they'll get cooked in the recipe anyway. I won't be relying on texture as I would if I were serving them fresh. The worse that happens is another failed experiment. At least beets are pretty cheap. Since everyone's been wondering about cocoa and Dutch process, acid reactions, the effect they have on baked good, etc. I thought I'd link this article from Shirley Corriher. It appeared in one of our local papers this morning. Could not have come at a better time. The discussion of cocoa is about halfway into the article. http://www.washtimes.com/food/20070220-091157-8722r.htm Wed Feb 21 08:54:53 -0800 2007 2313824 32444 MakingSense 1 2313930 I've made a beet cake before (don't ask why, I was intrigued) and it was a glorious red/purple in batter and baked up BROWN. Tasted OK, not great. I definitely think the best solution is a yellow cake with strawberries in the batter or any type of cake with red frosting. Wed Feb 21 09:00:58 -0800 2007 2291532 41763 kiwijen 1 2485932 Hi~~~ I have made one other recipe calling for beet juice, it did remind me of the one my aunt made me every birthday for years, this one calls for pickled beet juice which might make it even better??, it doesn't use the white icing though, I bought some Red Velvet cupcakes years ago in Bird in hand PA., in an amish bakery, thought I was 10 again, it was perfect right down to the icing, anyway, here's the recipe I found using pickled beet juice or red wine vinegar, hope it brings back memories for those who try it. Chocolate Red Velvet Cake with Chocolate Icing Yield: 1 cake serving 8 people When I was growing up, I always wanted a simple chocolate cake for my birthday. I still do. This velvety chocolate cake gets its name from its smooth texture and reddish hue. The original recipe called for red beet juice—in some parts of the country it is called beet cake—but was altered by manufacturers who added red food coloring to the cake. "Red coloring is evil and dangerous for children and other living things," Carole Greenwood, a chef in Washington, D.C. told me. She refuses to use food coloring but loves this buttermilk-based velvety chocolate cake, and uses red wine vinegar or beet juice for the color. She also makes her version less sweet, using both good-quality cocoa powder and bittersweet chocolate. For the cake: 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup good-quality cocoa powder 2 extra-large eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 cup buttermilk 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 2 tablespoons pickled beet juice or red wine vinegar 1 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour 1/2 cup cake flour 1/2 cup cornstarch 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar For the icing: 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter 2 tablespoons sugar 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/8 teaspoon salt 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease two 9-inch round cake pans. 2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the water and cocoa powder, and allow the mixture to cool. 3. Beat the eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer, then add the vanilla, buttermilk, baking soda, and beet juice or red wine vinegar and stir well. 4. Sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, cornstarch, salt, and sugar into the bowl. Pour in the butter and then the egg mixture and blend thoroughly on low. 5. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 6. Cool the cakes for a few minutes, then turn them out onto wire racks, and frost and fill the center with the chocolate icing. Chocolate Icing 1. Place the cream, butter, and sugar in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until hot and bubbly. 2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the chocolate, stirring slowly until smooth and silky. Add the vanilla and the salt. Taste and adjust the sweetness to your taste. Cool for about 15 minutes before frosting the cake. Mon Apr 16 12:13:14 -0700 2007 2291532 91879 ibgram 1 3068231 Actually the way the first recipes were made, the trick was that you use a specific type of coco powder which has a red tint to it that give you the reddish huge... if you want the now more poplar color of red use this type of coco powder and beet juice for the extra red color but the coco is very expensive and I believe that is why or at least one of the reasons so many used generic coco powder and add dyes... I'd recoment Gerkens Cocoa Powder: 10/12 Garnet it is Heavily Alkalized Cocoa Powder. But it gives the color and taste you want! Though its a bit rich so you may want to use a sweeter frosting that is creamy, I'd recomend a rich chocolate cream cheese frosting... I personaly use a french chocolate buttercream with a touch more sugar. but I tend to just use a chocolate glaze if I'm makeing it for my father or just for fun for I love a rich cake. But it is your palet so it is your choice :) ~*trea*~ Thu Oct 25 18:37:57 -0700 2007 2291532 137569 trea_agnel 1 3475830 i am happy to report that red velvet cake actually requires NO FOOD COLORING WHATSOEVER! it's true. people began to add food coloring to enhance the red. but, in fact, it's the chemical reaction between the buttermilk, vinegar, and cocoa that produces a deep red on its own. the red will be more pronounced if you use cocoa that is not dutch-processed for alkalinity. you can also add beet juice for additional color if you like. but it isn't necessary. Sun Mar 09 16:01:43 -0700 2008 2291532 173318 squarepegg 2 3718634 I've noticed that most RVC recipes call for 2 oz. of red food coloring. I'm willing to eliminate it but consider: 2 oz. is a quarter-cup of liquid--quite a lot in a cake recipe. Does anyone have any suggestions about what sort of liquid could be substituted so that the cake doesn't turn out dry? I'm less concerned with color than flavor and texture. BTW, I hate Dutch-processed cocoa. I find it "anemic," having grown up on Hershey's. Sat May 24 21:14:31 -0700 2008 3475830 51048 MacGuffin 3 3719359 I usually just use water, or the equivalent in buttermilk. Sun May 25 10:38:44 -0700 2008 3718634 41097 chocolatstiletto 3 4001200 I realize I'm hopping into this thread way late but I do have a suggestion. I learned how to make the Red Velvet Cake from my mom who always thought 2 bottles of food coloring was a lot. Not to mention expensive. She uses 1 - 1 oz. bottle then refills it with water and adds it to the mix. It also rinses the remaining coloring out of the bottle. I realize that you're wanting to eliminate the food dye completely, but maybe this will help someone. Mon Sep 01 07:34:00 -0700 2008 3718634 222983 grafted 3 4929409 If you use professional paste food color you need very little to color the cake. And it doesn't add any liquid. A small bottle seems expensive, but it lasts forever it doesn't go bad. Sat Aug 08 16:54:56 -0700 2009 3718634 28006 Jennalynn 1 4006352 Tomato Soup Cake was very popular a long time ago. I don't still have the recipe but in the wonders of the www I am sure you could find such a recipe. I think It may have been, originally, a Campbell Soup recipe as that was the can of soup we always used. Wed Sep 03 13:20:28 -0700 2008 2291532 205842 The Old Gal 1 4010030 Jumping in on this discussion a year later--but I'm wondering if anyone's discovered any answers. In my quest to make Red Velvet cake without artificial coloring, I have so far tried using a homemade concoction of reduced beet juice, actual pureed beets, strained and reduced strawberries, and cranberry juice. I've used dutched cocoa and natural cocoa. The batter is red. When baked, however, my cakes are delicious but decidedly brown. Not even red in the slightest. Uh...is there an elephant in the room, or is it me? I mean no offense by this question, but I can't help but wonder if all the kind folks posting recipes for naturally-colored red velvet cake have actually *tried* these recipes---or are we all just collectively stretching the definition of "red?" In any case, the conclusion I'm drawing is that natural red pigment is either (a) not heat stable; i.e., it breaks down/oxidizes during baking or (b) not pH stable; i.e., is changed by the reaction caused by chemical leavening. Any food scientists out there want to comment on my half-baked (doh!) theory? Thu Sep 04 21:20:40 -0700 2008 2291532 223905 jezebella 2 5166320 Jumping into your post over a year later, I have tried this recipe, and it was bright red and authentic tasting. http://baking-decorating-cakes.suite101.com/article.cfm/naturally_colored_red_velvet_cake Sun Nov 08 22:32:12 -0800 2009 4010030 1122946 Trishamn 3 5167415 It sounds yummy and I like the mini chemistry lesson. I wish, though, that they hadn't "modified" the original recipe to the extent that the butter was eliminated. That would be sublime! Mon Nov 09 10:51:25 -0800 2009 5166320 51048 MacGuffin