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mangiare · Commis Chef Joined: 15 Dec 2009 Posts: 22

Wow! can't tell you how long i have spent on line looking at Red Velvet cakes. The big topic seems to be a substitute for red food coloring and that cream cheese icing is the modern not the old fashion icing. Cooked flour and milk with butter & sugar was the old way....I want to try this gravy icing!
Has anyone tried using cooked pureed beets instead of the food coloring?
Thanks!

ImStuffed · Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 1:24 pm Post subject:

I've heard of people baking with beet powder....but if someone doesn't like beets, I wonder if the earthy flavor would still come through?
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mangiare · Commis Chef Joined: 15 Dec 2009 Posts: 22

Yes I heard about the beet powder. Will have to look into that. I went ahead and made the red velvet cake w/o the food color. It looks like a nice brown. I used peringotti cocoa which is much redder (?) than Hershey's but it made no difference. We will see how it tasts later. I also made the "gravy" icing and that was a big flop. I was warned that it could curdle even if all ingredients were the same temp. I wonder why? It took a half lb of butter so we will be eating that too. So far it looks like I won't be making RVC for my sweetheart on valentines day!

ImStuffed · Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:46 pm Post subject:

are you staying away from the food dye for health reasons?

I once made a blue velvet cake and it was a lot of fun
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Danielle
"Sometimes your knight in shining armor is just a re-tard in tin foil"

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My Food Blog: http://peacefulcooking.blogspot.com/
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My Twitter: http://twitter.com/imstuffed

pattit · Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 7:56 am Post subject:

I am thinking that if you would have kept beating the icing the "curdled" look would have went away. It should have the consistency of a heavy whipped cream when you are done mixing it. I think it is a much better icing for the cake than the modern cream cheese icing. I hope you try it again and have success.
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pattit · Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:06 am Post subject:

You just can't get a better source than this one for informative and great tasting recipes.
http://culinaryalchemist.blogspot.com/2009/02/ermine-wrapped-velvet-ultimate.html

I hope this helps.
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mangiare · Commis Chef Joined: 15 Dec 2009 Posts: 22

Patti, thanks, I will check out that web site. I did whip the heck out of it on speed ten of my KA mixer for a long time....finally added a bit of heavy cream and it didn't seem to help much. The chocolate cake although mild in flavor was good. It was a cup and a half of oil though. Maybe if I add the pureed beets I can remove some of the oil.
Danielle, I just don't want to use food color. I try to keep everything more healthy and since it is not good for you and only used for the visual, why bother is my thought. If there is a healthy way to make it pretty red I will try it.
Yes, kind of tired of cream cheese icing used on everything so maybe I will try the cooked icing again. It really is light and tasty, just really ugly!!!

mangiare · Commis Chef Joined: 15 Dec 2009 Posts: 22

Patty, thank you again. What a great website. It has encouraged me to try this again. I think the problem started with the creaming of the sugar and butter. It kind of stayed grainy even being whipped a long time.??? The other mistake I made was to add the cooked milk all at one time. Wish I could scrape the icing off this ugly cake and do again!!! I am also going to try her recipe for RVC it has no oil at all. I used Martha's cup cake recipe and it is nice but like I said alot of oil.
Thanks all!!

pattit · Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 4:27 pm Post subject:

Glad we could be of help, Shane (The Culinary Alchemist) is a member of BakeSpace but doesn't post nearly as often. I read his blog all the time and I am just in awe of the things he whips up. I have made that icing since I was in high school but never heard it called by that name. I thought the pictures etc. would be of some help to you.
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mangiare · Commis Chef Joined: 15 Dec 2009 Posts: 22

I have bookmarked that site as there seems to be much more to learn and I am really into doing and learning more at this stage of life. So much of what I have been doing is because it is tried and true. I want to experiment but it is always good to have someone to bounce things off of. I am wary of web sites that just give recipes and reviews....so many of the reviews the people haven't even tried the recipe so that is almost no help. My dad was a depression baby so at my home we do not waste food. I need to know that I have a pretty good shot at the thing turning out and Shane (?) site looks very ecucational and informed. Yea!