Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake

This is a dense, old school Red Velvet Cake with fluffy cooked vanilla frosting.

This an old-style dense red velvet cake recipe. A rich chocolately cake is layered and topped with a fluffy vanilla-flavored frosting. If you need a cake for a special occasion – a birthday, Valentine’s Day, or a holiday – this red velvet cake recipe is for you. This cake is a rich blend of eggs, shortening, buttermilk, cocoa, flour, sugar, and vanilla made more colorful with red food coloring.

The cooked frosting is an equally rich blend of shortening, flour, milk, butter, sugar, and vanilla. It is so much better than cream cheese frosting, which pales in comparison to the cooked frosting the Waldorf uses. I prefer cream cheese frosting on carrot cake.

How Did Red Velvet Cakes First Come About?

In the Victorian age, bakers learned how to soften the proteins in flour. They used ingredients such as cornstarch, cocoa, or almond flour, resulting in a smoother, more refined texture than other cakes. These softer cakes were called velvet cakes.

The red color of velvet cakes did not come initially from food dyes. That’s because the original color was produced by a chemical reaction between cocoa powder, vinegar, and baking soda. At one time, the red color was much brighter because cocoa powder once contained anthocyanins, pigments responsible for the red colors found in foods like red cabbage and raspberries. 

Today’s cocoa powder contains an alkalizing agent to neutralize acidity, affecting its color-changing properties. That’s why we have to fancy up our red velvet cake with a little extra makeup these days and add food dye to give it that extra pop. 

The Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City claims that it is the red velvet cake’s birthplace, and indeed this red Waldorf cake has been a popular menu item there since the 1950s. However, historians argue that the red velvet cake originated in the southern US.

• You can read a lot more about the history of red velvet cakes by clicking here.

Ingredients

Here’s a list of what you need for the cake and frosting:

• Shortening
• Eggs
• Red food coloring
• Buttermilk
• Milk
• Butter
• Vinegar
• Baking soda
• Sugar
• Cocoa powder
• All-purpose flour
• Salt
• Vanilla extract

How to Make Red Velvet Cake with Cooked Frosting

1. Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring.
2. Cream shortening, sugar, and eggs. Add cocoa and food coloring mixture and mix well.
3. Add buttermilk with vinegar and flour with salt alternately.
4. By hand, fold in vanilla and baking soda.
   
5. Pour batter evenly into three greased and floured cake pans.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
7. Remove cake layers from the pans and cool completely.
8. Cook flour and milk until thick.
9. Beat shortening, butter, sugar, vanilla until creamy.
10. Add milk and flour mixture a little at a time and beat well.
    
11. Spread frosting on the cake, between each layer and on the sides.

Favorite Cake Recipes

• Pistachio Cake
• Ambrosia Cake
• Jello Poke Cake Recipe
• Ultimate Red Velvet Cheesecake
• Chocolate Pudding Cake Recipe
• Coca-Cola Cake
• Gingerbread Cake
• Old Fashioned Carrot Cake Recipe with Pineapple
• Pound Cake Recipe with Cake Mix
• Italian Lemon Cream Cake
• Norwegian Almond Cake

More Holiday Treats Recipes

• Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark
• Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls
• DIY Truffles

Be sure to check out more of my easy cake recipes and the best restaurant copycat recipes right here on CopyKat.com!