PRODUCT NAME

Red Velvet

Red velvet cake is essentially a butter cake, though it is frequently made with oil instead of butter. In addition, cocoa is added to the cake batter to create the distinct red velvet flavor — originally it was a reaction between buttermilk and the raw cocoa widely available at the time of red velvet's inception that caused a ruddy-hued crumb. These days you'll more often find them tinted with food coloring. You might have heard the cake referred to as the $200 cake — legend has it that the red velvet cake was first baked in the 1920s by a chef at the Waldorf-Astoria. A guest was so taken with the cake that she wrote the chef, asking for the recipe — along with a bill, hence it's other name. Whatever you call it, it's delicious.