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Popular home baker Karen Young’s initial red velvet cake was
somewhat of a misnomer. For one thing, the cake was dark, rendering
null its very name; it was dry; and the icing was some incongruous
combination of cream and something else. (I find out later the
“something else” is mascarpone—Italian light triple-whipped
cream cheese—but that still didn’t change my opinion of the
cake).
When we met up for lunch one day, I gently
broached to Karen my opinion of the said cake. I believe that
criticism must always be constructive, so after I tell her my
thoughts, I suggest a few ways she might want to try to improve it.
Our ideas bounce off each other, and soon, we were flush with the
idea of her recharged red velvet cake.
This cake has a riddled past and an uncertain
origin. The consensus though, is that red velvet, like many layer
cakes, is from the southern United States. A vanilla cake kissed
with cocoa powder, it has a soft, yielding crumb from baking soda
that also contributes that characteristic reddish tint when it
reacts to the cocoa. As for the icing, purists decry the use of
cream cheese on a red velvet cake, asserting that the
“traditional” icing is made by cooking flour and milk into a
paste and then mixing it into beaten butter and white sugar. It
doesn’t sound too appealing which is why many prefer the cream
cheese frosting.
What’s clear is that red velvet cake is red:
anything from a saccharine Valentine red to a dramatic, burnt
sienna. The color, no doubt, depends on the amount of food coloring
involved, made even more striking by the contrast of red set against
tufts of white frosting. In her revamped red velvet cake, Karen
harnessed fresh butter and quality cocoa powder, sugar, eggs, and
other ingredients in their proper proportions. She was mindful of
each ingredient’s contribution to the final result, and of her
goal to produce a red velvet cake that’s alluring in appearance
and taste.
When Karen showed me the cake, there was no hint
of what lay underneath its white top punctuated by curls of white
chocolate. But. A single red rosebud at its center gave a seductive
hint. When my knife sliced through the cake, there was no mistaking
what this was.
Rims of deep brown enveloped a heart of red.
Painfully moist is its crumb, which possesses a fleeting cocoa
flavor rounded out by buttery notes. And the final touch: the cream
cheese frosting a perfect cloak to this supernal creation.
I tasted this cake late at night after coming
home from a dinner out. The house was quiet and only I was up.
Grabbing a dessert plate and fork, I ate a slice in silence, letting
only the cake speak to me. My pulse was pounding, every flavor
taking up residence in my taste memory. I chewed slowly, and each
bite slides down my throat like velvet.
Karen’s Kitchen is at 428 Adalla Street Palm
Village, Makati City. For details, call 898-2280.
Lori Baltazar can be reached via her website
www.dessertcomesfirst.com or through her e-mail, lori_baltazar@yahoo.com.
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