Creating a Red Velvet Memory

I love to cook, most of the time! I enjoy creating new and exciting food, full of color and texture.

Recently, I just couldn't get my mind off of, red velvet cake! Yes, red velvet cake. Every morning for a week, I woke up thinking about a cake that was part of my childhood.

Finally, I texted my sister to get our Aunt Floy's red velvet cake recipe. 

With my new healthy eating and cooking, this cake just didn't seem to go along. But, hey, nothing ventured, EVERYTHING to gain, right?

So, my sister sent me Aunt Floy's recipe. Aunt Floy lived to be over 100 years old. She and her sister, my paternal grandmother, Mama Ruby, lived together in their senior years. They were such a hoot together! Lots of laughs came our way over the Sunday supper. I remember so much about those dinners—lace tablecloths, fine china, iced tea, and food that was out of this world. 

Fresh steaming corn, beautiful tomatoes, crisp cucumbers and salad, potatoes from their garden in the back, and pot roast that was ever so tender, these were our Sunday suppers. 

We were stuffed before dessert. But when Aunt Floy's red velvet cake was unveiled, we just had to indulge. 

This divine creature cake was absolutely beautiful. Vibrant red and moist, along with thick creamy icing sprinkled with coconut.

The memories of this cake had ensconced me for days! I just had to make it, calories to the wind…. "I am making this cake," I told myself.

In came Tuesday, as I began studying the ingredients, I must say, sorry, Aunt Floy, I had a furrowed brow as I ran through the list. Crisco not only in the cake but in the icing, lots of sugar (yes, the refined white kind) and not a surprise... red food coloring. The real surprise was the amount! Two ounces, which equals two one-ounce bottles. Oh my!

I had a decision to make… either make this cake all the way or modify it. I just could not take a chance on all that red food coloring! So, I admit it, I modified with beet juice. 

The cake's texture was nice, thick but not too thick, nicely turning with the spatula, I added the beat juice, with reluctance. Sorry, Aunt Floy, I just could not add that red food coloring! Immediately after adding the beet juice, I began to see the muted red color appear. 

I poured the batter into the pans, thinking of what Aunt Floy would be thinking about my modified maroon cake. However, the batter still had a lovely texture.

While the cakes were baking, I looked at the icing recipe. More Crisco and sweetened condensed milk, help! This was unlike the buttercream icing I make with powdered sugar. 

Fast forward to cakes cooled. I mixed the icing ingredients together over the stovetop, thinking of the two sisters while I did. 

When I began to pour the icing over the cooled cakes, it was a visual and olfactory sensory moment. I finally understood this icing and cake, and I was transported back to my red velvet memory. 

Unlike any I had made before, this icing melted into the cake; suddenly, I was sitting at the sisters' table smelling that icing and seeing the molten cake in front of me. More red in color, of course, but there it was.

So, I say if you have a memory you want to recreate… go for it. 

Just keep an open mind that if you modify, you will create a new memory, but somehow your own, Aunt Floy will be standing by with an approving smile.

Happy Creating!

Stacy J.