I'm always wary of trying recipes for foods that I've never tasted because while I can distinguish between "delicious" and "rancid motor oil", it's hard to know if things taste the way their supposed to.
Red velvet cake in particular was a terrifying prospect. I wanted to try it because in addition to a stunning presentation, it had this weird not-quite-chocolate-but-not-really-vanilla thing going on. People say it's a chocolate cake, and it does have cocoa, but recipes generally call for 2 Tbsp of cocoa per 2 layer cake. That's not chocolate cake the way I think of it.
Red velvet cake is also scary for an entirely different reason involving food coloring. The recipe uses a lot of it. Reader reviews were issuing warnings about using latex gloves and not rushing, lest your hands and kitchen look like a murder scene.
I started looking up recipes and it turns out that red velvet cake is a very southern, very traditional food and southerners are as opinionated about how to make it as I am about my cheese steaks.
The cupcakes are really good. This cupcake recipe calls for 1/4 c of cocoa, which is more than normal, but I really like the
So the bottom line is I have no idea if this is authentic red velvet cake, but these cupcakes are the lightest, fluffiest, and most moist cupcakes I've ever had. I'm happy.
