Red Velvet cupcakes have become my favorite. I just love the idea of a red cake and how it looks so festive. So it was only fitting that I bake this cake for my favorite friend, A. We celebrated the eve of A’s birthday yesterday at a bar in Makati and I decided to surprise her with a red velvet cake with chocolate frosting that we all enjoyed late into the evening (when everyone was quite happily drunk).
Red Velvet Cake with Chocolate Frosting
A and I have seen each other through the best and worst of times and I consider myself very lucky to have a solid friendship that has lasted for more than a decade. The truth is, I don’t know what I would do without her.
Happy Birthday, bru! I love you.
Red Velvet Cake Trivia
The past few days, people have been asking me how these cakes got their color. What I know is that sometime around World War II, there was a food shortage and people could not afford to put as much cocoa in their chocolate cakes. So instead, some bakers chose to add beet juice to their cakes to supplement the lack of color. Interesting, don’t you think?
Incidentally, this cake was also featured in one of my all time favorite movies, Steel Magnolias where the groom’s cake was the shape of an armadillo. Remember that scene where Shirley MacLaine violently sliced off the armadillo’s rear end for Tom Skerrit? Classic!
Red Velvet Armadillo Cake from the 1989 movie Steel Magnolias
Miss Maimai is a teacher by profession, a recreational photographer and an aspiring cook who enjoys spending her free time by the sea.
Kitchen Attempts 