Red velvet cake is a cake with either a dark red, bright red or red-brown color. It is traditionally prepared as a layer cake topped with cream cheese or cooked roux icing.
無論是深紅，亮紅，或棕紅色的它都是紅絲絨蛋糕。傳統的紅絲絨蛋糕被覆蓋上奶油芝士或者有一層糖衣。
Common ingredients include buttermilk, butter, cocoa, and flour for the cake, beetroot or red food coloring for the color.
通常來說配料中都會含有，酸奶油，黃油，可可粉，麵粉，甜菜或這食用紅色素。
History紅絲絨蛋糕的歷史
James Beard's reference, American Cookery (1972), describes three red velvet cakes varying in the amounts of shortening, butter, and vegetable oil. All used red food coloring, but the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in cocoa and keeps the cake moist, light, and fluffy. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name "red velvet", as well as "Devil's food" and similar names for chocolate cakes。Contemporarily, chocolate has often undergone Dutch processing, which prevents the color change of the anthocyanins.
詹姆斯·比爾德的標準，美國烹飪（1972年），描述了三種紅絲絨蛋糕通過不同的酥油，黃油和植物油的不同。所有使用的紅色食品著色劑，白色的乳酪更一方面更能襯託紅色另一方面，乳酪中的酸性物連同甜菜裡的紅花青素，一同讓蛋糕保持溼潤，有光澤，而且蓬鬆。而又這種天然的著色的蛋糕，我們叫它「紅絲絨蛋糕」很像「惡魔蛋糕」這種巧克力蛋糕。而現在的荷蘭人會將巧克力做處理，防止花青素的影響而改變其顏色。
既然提到了詹姆斯，彼爾德，端木就囉嗦兩句，這可是餐飲界的牛逼的人物，尤其是在美國。
When foods were rationed during World War II, bakers used boiled beet juices to enhance the color of their cakes.
第二次世界大戰期間，烘焙師們用煮沸濃縮的甜菜汁來增加食物的顏色。（作為一種天然的染色劑，色澤十分誘人而且富有多種礦物質，）
Beets are found in some red velvet cake recipes, where they also serve to retain moisture. Adams Extract, a Texas company, is credited with bringing the red velvet cake to kitchens across America during the Great Depression era, by being one of the first to sell red food coloring and other flavor extracts with the use of point-of-sale posters and tear-off recipe cards.
在蛋糕製作的配方中，甜菜根都能看到其身影，它也能有效起到保持蛋糕溼潤的作用。德克薩斯州的Adams Extract在美國經濟大蕭條時期，被認為是第一家發明使用紅色食用色素和其他香味濃縮精華的商家，並定義了其配方。
The cake and its original recipe are well known in the United States from New York City's famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, which has dubbed the confection Waldorf-Astoria cake.
當然最原始的配方，大都認為是在來自紐約的華爾道夫酒店，被稱為「秘制華爾道夫蛋糕」（各位繼續往下看，端木給大家解釋一下盛名已久的充滿故事的配方，當然故事按照慣例還是要講的）
華爾道夫酒店及度假村是希爾頓全球旗下的頂級奢華酒店品牌。沒錯你現在看到的圖片就是，位於紐約的華爾道夫酒店了。（當然在上海的朋友也可以去外灘的華爾道夫酒店嘗嘗相對地道的紅絲絨蛋糕）
浦江匯早在1910年是間報章雜誌閱覽室，上海總會的成員曾在此一邊抽著雪茄，一邊閱讀報紙，了解最新時事新聞，今天，它成為世界上最負盛名和最受追捧的酒店品牌旗下的茶室。從照片資料來看，原浦江匯曾是裝修簡單的閱覽室，而它的重建形象則更顯豐富，讓現代賓客感受到其深邃的故事。浦江匯的原方格天花板和豪華的皇冠造型上有包覆於金色葉子內的齒狀紋飾。新建之後則裝有古典風格的水晶枝形燈、精心設計的鑲金鏡子和東方絲質地毯，使之更加奢華。
好了，我們繼續講故事，話說這家紐約的華爾道夫酒店，1959年時出現了一位女客人在這家酒店用餐，享用到了紅絲絨蛋糕，她對這款蛋糕非常感興趣，於是向酒店索要蛋糕師的名字以及蛋糕配方，酒店滿足了她的要求，但不久之後，她收到了一份高額帳單，原來酒店並不是無償告知蛋糕配方，這位女客人一怒之下，向全社會公布了紅絲絨蛋糕的配方，這也無意間讓紅絲絨蛋糕從一家酒店而聞名全世界，當然端木個人覺得不太靠譜，這個故事的真實性有待商榷。但無論如何，這個傳統的紅絲絨配方被廣泛認可了。
我們來看看這個配方，我們從左往右從上到下和大家解釋幾種不常見的比較奇怪的材料。crisco這是什麼鬼呢？原來是保潔公司旗下的酥油的品牌，1911年這種植物性白油推向市場，並以比黃油更健康為賣點進行廣告宣傳，當然我們現在看來，其實就是人造黃油，健康嗎？我看未必。再看看下面的buttermilk可能有人要問了這又是什麼鬼？是黃油牛奶嗎？端木個人覺得是發酵奶油，或者叫酸奶油，資料上是這樣描述的Originally, buttermilk was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cream.最後還有個viegar其實端木也很奇怪，為毛蛋糕裡要加醋呢，其實是增加香味，去膩，同時能保持其色澤的。
However, it is widely considered a Southern recipe. Traditionally, red velvet cake is iced with a French-style butter roux icing (also called ermine icing), which is very light and fluffy, but time-consuming to prepare. Cream cheese frosting and buttercream frosting are variations which have increased in popularity.
紅絲絨蛋糕被賦予了法式奶油糖霜French-style butter roux icing它還有一個名字叫ermine icing或者叫ermine frosting（這種糖霜的做法之前端木已經講過不知道大家是否還有印象，當然把它換成American frosting也是不錯的選擇，尤其是作為拿破崙醬，因為它的穩定性比較高，而且口感也相對溫和，下圖就是最近端木製作的，希望可以給到大家參考，有關裱花裝飾1奶油糖霜）口感是十分蓬鬆，細膩，但較費時費力，所以逐漸的被芝士糖霜和基礎奶油糖霜這種製作簡單，口味多變的的糖霜所取代。
In Canada, the cake was a well-known dessert in the restaurants and bakeries of the Eaton's department store chain, in the 1940s and 1950s. Promoted as an exclusive Eaton's recipe, with employees who knew the recipe sworn to silence, many mistakenly believed the cake was the invention of the department store matriarch, Lady Eaton.
在加拿大，十九世紀四五十年代伊頓連鎖公司這款蛋糕為大眾所知，而伊頓官方宣傳的配方和公司所在職員所知的相去甚遠，許多人錯誤的認為這款蛋糕是伊頓家族的章女，伊頓女士所發明的。
In recent years, red velvet cake and red velvet cupcakes have become increasingly popular in the US and many European countries. A resurgence in the popularity of this cake is attributed by some to the film Steel Magnolias (1989), which included a red velvet groom's cake made in the shape of an armadillo.
現在紅絲絨蛋糕以及紅絲絨杯子蛋糕，在英國和其他歐洲國家，乃至是全球越來越流行。而被人們做認知而出名是因為1989年的電影《Steel Magnolias》，裡面那個被做成犰狳的形狀，也是挺重口味的。
Magnolia Bakery in Manhattan, having served it since its opening in 1996, certainly helped to popularize the cake, as did restaurants known for their Southern cooking like Amy Ruth's in Harlem,which opened in 1998. In 2000, Cake Man Raven opened one of the first bakeries devoted to the cake in Brooklyn. In the South Indian state of Kerala, red velvet cake became popular with the release of the Malayalam movie Premam.
到了二十世紀，紐約開了第一家紅絲絨蛋糕店。而在印度南部印度喀拉拉邦，紅絲絨蛋糕是因為一個叫《Premam》的電影兒流行起來。
I can hear the 1990 Grammy award winning song playing in my head now…
「Red」 Velvet with that slow southern style
A new religion that』ll bring ya to your knees
「Red」 Velvet if you please
Oh wait…the song is Black Velvet isn’t?
甚至還有一首專門寫紅絲絨蛋糕的歌被流傳下來。你看華爾道夫酒店真是煞費苦心地進行文化宣傳。以下這是他們官方的宣傳，一份配方350美金也是蠻坑爹的。
Well, here at the Waldorf we sing a different tune; a song about one of our most delicious dessert recipes: the Red Velvet Cake. Red Velvet Cake was born in the 1940s, in the midst of World War II and all its chaos. Since money was tight for most households and food was rationed, many used boiled beets, beet juice, and beet baby food to give their baked goods color and moisture. Believed by some to have been a Southern creation due to its popularity in the Deep South, the classic recipe actually originated here at the Waldorf Astoria. The chef who developed the recipe kept it a secret until a guest wrote to him asking how to make it. Allegedly, the chef provided the recipe to the guest, but also included a bill for $350— quite a lot of money for the time. The guest became so offended by the unexpected invoice that she took revenge on the chef by sending the 「secret」 recipe to all of her friends and family members, many of whom were the 「who’s who」 of the Big Apple. Luckily, the incident only helped the cake to grow in popularity and it eventually became one of the most sought-after bakery treats.
The flavor composition is quite mild and unique, with a slight hint of unsweetened chocolate. The icing is what 「takes the cake,」 with the tanginess of cream cheese and Mascarpone combined with the sweetness of the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. The use of beets as a colorant prevents the cake from having the harsh, artificial taste that red food dyes can often produce.
– Danielle Marullo
Food and Beverage Manager
Waldorf Astoria New York
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