What is red velvet cake? Red velvet cake got its name in the 1800s, when bakers added cocoa powder to cakes to make them taste and feel luxurious — the cocoa provided a velvety texture.

Red velvet cake's very first appearance is disputed, but we can trace it back to the Victorian era's "mahogany cakes," when cocoa powder's acidity, mixed with vinegar, gave them a reddish tint.

Virtually no other velvet cakes appear in cookbooks or on menus today, but red velvet endures. After surviving the early 2010s, when red velvet flavored, colored or scented a barrage of ...

Before the 1920s, red velvet cake was more of a rust color than the brighter scarlet you usually see now. A chemical reaction among a few key ingredients occurred (more on that in a second) to ...