Red Velvet for Valentines, Part II by Donna Everhart

In my family we have a cookie baking tradition. Since I can remember, my mother and I have baked at Christmas time, and this has continued with my daughter, and now my granddaughter too. Four generations were in my kitchen this past holiday season, my granddaughter’s very first time, while for my daughter, my mother and myself, we can count these special times by the decades. There was one year we baked from seven a.m. until eleven p.m., and the next morning when I woke up, my hands ached from kneading so much dough. That was the year we made eight different types of cookies, doubling or tripling recipes, so by the time it was all said and done, we had to have baked hundreds upon hundreds of cookies. We are not that ambitious now, and usually do about three kinds. The dough is made ahead, so all we have to do is roll, drop, or cut. This is much more manageable, and enjoyable time for all considering we now have an eighty-two year old with a cane and a four year old with enough energy for all of us.

By the time Valentine’s Day comes around, the holiday overload of sugar has waned, and if I’ve been careful, my New Year’s resolutions are still intact. Valentine’s Day is about showing our love for those we care about, and what better way to do this than to offer up something homemade to go along with a card? In a previous post, I talked about red velvet cupcakes, and hinted I had a recipe for red velvet cookies. I don’t know what it is about cookies, but they hold such nostalgic feelings for me. I have memories of cookies and milk for an after school snack, and how there was always a filled cookie jar on the kitchen countertop when I was growing up. It wasn’t uncommon for me and my brother to try and sneak one before supper, dodging Mom’s watchful eye.

Red Velvet for Valentines by Donna Everhart

I don’t mean bows, dresses, or shoes – although red velvet shoes would be stunning, now that I think about it. No, I’m talking about Red Velvet cake – or in this case, cupcakes!

The history behind this baking concept which truly earns the name of Red Velvet if done correctly, is a bit convoluted. Velvet cakes, in general, are thought to have been created during the Victorian era. The term “velvet” was used because the cake would be soft and crumbly from ingredients like incorporating cocoa into flour, which gives it a finer texture. At some point, chocolate was used, and those cakes became known as Devil’s Food cakes, and there is the thought this is where the Red Velvet cake originated.

The Adams Extract Company has claimed to also have a hand in the creation of this famous cake trend. They’re the creators of red food coloring and in the 1920s, the company declared they made the first Red Velvet cake. They can certainly take credit for having brought it into households across America during the Depression, as one of the first to use point of sales posters and tear off recipe cards for their food coloring and other flavors.

Then there is the famous Waldorf Astoria in New York City who considers it their own creation, and introduced it in the 1950s. Here, to this day, the cake actually goes under the name of the Waldorf Astoria cake.

Even Canada has a stake in it. In the 1940s and 50s, Red Velvet cake was served as a popular dessert at Eaton’s Department store. Employees were bound to secrecy over the recipe, which some thought was devised by the Lady Eaton herself.

But, while all of the above may be true, many consider it a Southern recipe. This is likely due to the resurgence in popularity after the 1980s movie, Steel Magnolias, which featured a Red Velvet armadillo cake as the groom’s cake. Y’all remember that scene don’t you, with “Ouiser” whacking off the tail end and serving it to Drum Eatenton? (played by Tom Skerritt) He followed up that serving with a classic line I can’t repeat here.

I know in my own family, there isn’t a year that goes by where we don’t have Red Velvet cake, cupcakes or a version made into cookies for the holidays, Valentine’s, or even a birthday celebration. If you’ve never tried this cake before, I feel certain it would become a favorite with your family too. There is a very light, delicate hint of chocolate, and it’s a true centerpiece for a special celebration due to its brilliant color.

The traditional icing for a Red Velvet cake is called ermine frosting. You create a roux and slowly add confectioner’s sugar, beating it all the while. The taste is creamy sweet, and a perfect addition. Ermine frosting takes time, but is oh so worth the effort. However, if you’re a bit intimidated by it, there is another very good icing using cream cheese that is often used, and has become perhaps even more popular than ermine.

Red Velvet cakes have become so popular once again, there are other creations that use the idea of Red Velvet as a flavoring or scent, sort of like the Pumpkin Spice rage that is so popular in the Fall. There are Red Velvet Pop-Tarts ™, protein powders, teas, waffles and Red Velvet scented air fresheners and candles. Personally, I’m not crazy about cross-over products. I much prefer to have the cake (and eat it, too), but I think if I had to choose something else that is Red Velvet flavored, that isn’t the cake or cupcakes, Red Velvet Crackle cookies come in a close second.

That’s the post for the next time!

Writing Inspiration by Donna Everhart

There are two questions about writing I’m asked more than others.  “What made you want to start?” or, “Why did you start?”  I wish I could say, “I’ve known since I was old enough to hold a pencil I’d be a writer,” or “those voices in my head insist I write.”  That seems a more likely view of how it possibly began for many.  I was no different, perhaps, than any other person before I started in how I viewed The Author.  The Author was a reclusive, distressed soul with an unlimited supply of alcohol at their elbow, compelled to write for days on end, only surfacing long enough to eat in order to stay alive.  That’s definitely more interesting than how I began.

I started writing based on two simple facts.  One, I love to read.  So do many people, yet they aren’t compelled to start writing a book, so, what’s the difference?  I can’t answer that, but at some point, I realized I’d begun to read critically, forming opinions about plot, style and word choices.  I thought, I wonder if I could do this.  As family life and work took over, reading time was greatly reduced because of obligations.  One day I bought a book considered southern fiction.  The characters reminded me of myself, my family, and the places I come from, they “spoke” my language.  Eventually, those writers were the ones who inspired me more than anyone else, the ones who moved me enough to seriously consider what had been a distant idea.