Treat of the Week: Red Velvet Cake

For as much as we enjoy cake, surprisingly, my family has never had a Red Velvet cake. So, my mother took that as a challenge and set about making one of her own from scratch. Here’s the result. We quite enjoyed it. Red Velvet cake is mildly chocolaty, and as is the case here, typically quite rich and moist. The cake is almost always iced in white frosting. My mother has created a frosting from whipping cream and cream cheese. Quite lovely!


There’s much debate as to the origins of Red Velvet cake. Some say it came from the North, some from the South. In reality, many variations of Red Velvet cake exist—some even employing beets for the coloring (this was a common practice during the Second World War). Of course, Red Velvet cake’s close cousin, Devil’s Food, seemed to emerge around the same time.

An online search for recipes will allow you to select which version most appeals to you. As is always the case with these things, I’m not sure how my mother created this lovely treat, but I’m sure glad she did.