Memories of The Grill Room: Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake

Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of attending the 40th wedding anniversary of two dear friends. One of their daughters had baked the cakes for the celebration lunch: delicious banana cakes. She said she had wanted to make Red Velvet Cake for the occasion (ruby red for the 40th anniversary), but they didn’t work out for her. I told her I had a recipe for Red Velvet Cake and here it is for you, Synove, with a story to go with it, of course.

I was introduced to Red Velvet Cake when I was a kid. It was the treat at the end of many a downtown shopping trip with my nana. (Yes, we went downtown to shop, everybody did. We even took the bus.) Most of the time, we choose our coveted slice from the dessert section of Eaton’s cafeteria, but once in awhile we enjoyed the finer dining experience of Eaton's Grill Room. This recipe produces the cake that I remember.

Like many of the other recipes I share on this blog, I’ve had this one in my wooden recipe box for a long time and don’t know exactly where it originated. At one time, I made it frequently, but then got away from it. In recent years, Red Velvet Cake has enjoyed a huge resurgence in popularity. There are plenty of recipes and debate about its origin online. I read an interesting article about this cake at the Sand and Feathers blog.

This is an impressive looking scratch cake baked in three layers. I only had two 8” round baking pans available, so I used an 8” springform pan for one of the layers, and it worked just fine.

You could use a cream cheese frosting on this cake. However, the frosting recipe given here is closest to what I remember of the Eaton’s Red Velvet Cake. It calls for granulated white sugar although I have seen similar frosting recipes that use confectioners or icing sugar. It’s a little grittier in texture with the granulated, but it’s the texture I’ve come to prefer. Whichever frosting you go with, make sure you cool the cakes completely. In fact, it doesn’t hurt to refrigerate them and frost them out right out of the fridge. And, be sure to brush the crumbs off the cake before frosting, so the red stays red and the white stays white. Of course, the white frosting is a perfect canvas for decoration, but the dramatic contrast between the red and the white when you slice into the layers has always been striking enough for me.

MA’s Red Velvet Cake

Preheat oven to 350º F.

Grease and flour 3 – 8-inch round baking pans and place a sheet of parchment paper inside the bottom of each pan for easy removal of the cakes. 

Setting up to make the cakes

½ cup butter
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 oz. red food colouring
2 heaping tbsp cocoa
2 ¼ cups cake flour
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk or soured milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vinegar

Cream the butter, sugar and eggs.

Cool completely and brush off crumbs before frosting

Make a paste of the food colouring and cocoa and add it to the creamed mixture.

Sift together the flour and salt. Add to the creamed mixture, alternating with the buttermilk.

Add vanilla.

Blend in the soda and vinegar.

Pour the batter into prepared pans.

Bake 24 to 34 minutes or until tester inserted in centre of each cake comes out clean.

Cool on rack. For further cooling and to make frosting the cake easier, cakes can be refrigerated for one to two hours.

Frost with Frosting for Red Velvet Cake.

Store frosted cake in refrigerator. Can be served cold or brought to room temperature.

Printable Recipe for MA's Red Velvet Cake

MA’s Frosting for Red Velvet Cake

Cook flour and milk until very thick

2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla

In a double boiler or in a bowl set over boiling water, cook the flour and milk, stirring constantly with lots of love, until very thick. Remove from heat and cool completely.

Cream together the sugar, butter and vanilla until very fluffy.

Add the cooled flour and milk mixture to the

Mix until frosting is consistency of whipped cream

creamed mixture and mix until well blended. The frosting will be the constituency of whipped cream.

Makes enough frosting to fill and frost the side and top of one 3-layer cake.

Printable Recipe for MA's Frosting for Red Velvet Cake

Delicious Red Velvet Cake

Keeley's Super Easy Dips

Bob's Mango Avocado Salsa - ready to stir and serve

Keeley's Four-Ingredient Guacamole - scoop and enjoy

You’ve met my daughter Keeley in my kitchen on previous occasions (she made Chocolate Pretzel Chip Cookies and Pumpkin Dog Cookies). On a recent visit with the parental unit, she treated us to these quick and simple dips. Both were delicious.

The first she calls Bob’s Mango Avocado Salsa. Bob is a student in the Foods Class at the high school where Keeley teaches. The Foods Class held an Iron Chef competition and Keeley was asked to be one of judges. This salsa was one of Keeley’s favourite entries that day. And when you try it, you’ll know why. It’s so good.

The second dip is a Four-Ingredient Guacamole. Again, very easy to put together. Keeley tells me she didn’t think she liked guacamole or even avocados until tasting some guacamole earlier this year. Now she’s a fan. Just shows how our tastes and appreciation of different foods change over time. Every now and then, it’s good to try a food you’ve previously steered away from; you might be surprised.

Cuban Oregano

Keeley brought most of the ingredients with her and thought she would find the rest in mom’s pantry. Alas, I did not have the sriracha sauce or cilantro she needed. Keeley substituted a Mexican picante chili sauce for the sriracha in the guacamole. In place of the cilantro, she used Cuban oregano, which was handily growing in my kitchen. Not truly an Origanum, Cuban oregano’s Latin name is coleus amboinicus. It is used as a culinary herb in Latin America. I got my first cuttings of it years ago at course put on by Dave Hanson of Sage Garden Herbs. The soft, succulent leaves of the Cuban oregano plant have a sweet, spicy aroma and were just the right addition to the Mango Avocado Salsa. I am so proud of the way my daughters can so easily make substitutions in, tweak and create recipes. (Hey, they're better at it than Mom, but they probably already know that, too.)

Bob’s Mango Avocado Salsa

Mango prep for salsa

3 mangoes, peeled, pitted and diced

1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp cilantro or Cuban oregano, minced

Mix all ingredients together.

Serve at once with tortilla chips or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

This salsa can also be served as an accompaniment to grilled fish.

Printable Recipe for Bob's Mango Avocado Salsa

Keeley’s Four-Ingredient Guacamole

Avocado prep for guacamole

2 ripe avocados, peeled, pitted and mashed

1 tomato, seeded and diced

Juice of ½ lime

3 to 4 tbsp Sriracha sauce or other hot pepper sauce

Mix all ingredients together.

Serve at once with tortilla chips or refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Printable Recipe for Keeley's Four-Ingredient Guacamole

Allie: Can I help?

An Oldie but a Goodie: Sprout Burgers

Sprout Burger with Cheese

This is another one of my go-to recipes. It’s a big favorite of my husband (even though, in my opinion, he overdresses his burger as seen above with the addition of cheddar cheese). I’ve been making these burgers for decades. It originated in (guess where?) a Canadian Living magazine. It was their Summertime Cookbook Special from 1981. How do I know? Well, I still have a copy of that very issue. It was an article called “Great Menus for Good Losers: Delicious Low-Cal Suppers.” The burger was part of a menu that also featured a recipe for Yogurt Sesame Dressing to serve on mixed greens, and Lemon Snow, a dessert made from gelatin, frozen lemonade concentrate, ice cubes and egg whites. Each featured menu added up to less than 600 calories per serving.

Once you dress this burger up with cheese, mustard and relish, you’ll probably still get some of the sprout and water chestnut crunch, but you may miss the more subtle ginger-soy taste it offers and the low calorie count, of course. That’s why I dress mine with a little mayo, a leaf of lettuce and maybe a slice of tomato. However, you dress them, they are really good burgers, and a good choice to make ahead and freeze for a bbq later in the summer.

MA’s Sprout Burgers

(Originally from Canadian Living Summertime Cookbook Special 1981)

Sprout burger ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef

½ cup bean sprouts, chopped

¼ cup water chestnuts, chopped

1 tsp fresh ginger root, chopped fine

2 tsp soy sauce

fresh ground pepper

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients.

Shape into 4 large patties.

Broil or grill to desired doneness.

Serve on hamburger buns.

Our grill chef likes the burgers big and flat

Makes 4 burgers.

Printable Recipe for MA's Sprout Burgers