BEET-REDDENED VELVET CAKE
Due to their high sugar content—and when sugar from refined cane was scarce, say in time of war or rationing—cooked and puréed beets provided sweetness to many a recipe. Indeed, stories abound that, during World War II, red beets became a favored way both to flavor and color select sweets. Hence, some aver, red beets were the beginning to that markedly American cake, the Red Velvet Cake.
The origins of Red Velvet Cake in this country are obscure. It is alleged that it was birthed in a baptism of the then new-fangled red food dye at, of all places, New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Still, other stories suggest that the combination of cocoa powder (itself sometimes rationed during wartime), vinegar and red beet purée all figured in the beginnings of all things “red velvet.”
Distilled white vinegar (you may use rice vinegar) is that which helps “set” the redness in the recipe for the cake provided here. It is all-important; without it, the beets may turn the cake an unappetizing shade of purple-blue.
RECIPE: Red Velvet Cake with Beets
Adapted from allrecipes.com. Makes 1 9x13-inch cake, 2 dozen cupcakes or one smallish 2-layer cake. Avoid over-mixing the cake batter as much as possible. May be frosted with a plain vanilla buttercream frosting. Avoid a cream cheese-based frosting, though common; it is too piquantly flavored for this delicate, “velvety” cake.
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 and 1/2 cups granulated cane sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup puréed, skinned, cooked beets
1/2 cup neutral vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13-inch cake pan with parchment paper.
Sift flour and baking powder together in a large bowl.
Whisk together sugar, buttermilk, beets, oil, eggs, cocoa powder, red food coloring, vanilla extract, vinegar, baking soda and salt in another large bowl. To it, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring after each addition until just incorporated.
Pour batter into prepared pan(s). Tap pan(s) firmly to settle the batter and remove large bubbles. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 35 minutes.
Wine Pairings and Why: Odd as it seems, sweet foods are the most difficult to pair with wine. Sweetness, as one or more sugars such as fructose or sucrose, combines with the majority of wines (themselves dry) to cause sensations on the tongue of bitterness, astringency and acidity. Drink a dry white Burgundy with vanilla ice cream and discover a terrible experience. But if you pair the level of sugar in the food with a corresponding (or slightly higher) level of sweetness in the wine, that works. A good example is pairing an apple tart with a medium-sweet muscat. But the overall guideline is that sweetness in food requires the same level of sweetness in wine. With some moderately sweet desserts, that wine would be a Moscato from Italy or this country or a Piedmontese Brachetto d’Acqui. With very sweet desserts, a Port, or a Bordeaux Sauternes, or even a Bual or Malmsey Madeira from Portugal.