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| red velvet cafe from October Cafe |
So, we all strolled to the Pheasant, where one of my chums swiftly ordered me a gin and tonic. Perfect accompaniment to this soft, tasty and delicious cake.
The cake was totally vegan, and according to my friend R the colour usually comes from a type of beetles, getting squished. What I love about red velvet cake is that it is a complete mystery to me. I can't see anything on wikipedia about squished beetles though!
Anyway, I would definitely recommend the made to order cakes at October Cafe by Old Street. It's a cute little vegan business and deserves some support.
I just LOVE red velvet cake... yumminess! I think it's the icing that really gets me.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally, red food colouring (which gives velvet cake its colour) comes from cochinella. Cochinella is made by drying and crushing the Cochineal insect. For better dyes, carmine acid is extracted from their bodies by boiling them in some sort of concoction and then adding aluminium.
Here's a recipe... just in case you ever want to make it ;-) vomit! http://oldschoolpastry.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-prepare-red-food-coloring-using.html
Carmine / cochineal was a major source of red paint, food and fabric for hundreds of years. However, these days, I think that most red food colouring is synthetic. The synthetic versions are not as effective, so you tend to need more of it.
You can spot when cochineal is being used in products - if it's red and the ingredients say E120, natural red 4, C.I. 75470 or "natural colouring"... you're eating insects! You find it in things you'd never expect... apparently a lot of sausages have it in them... as does a lot of confectionary.
And there you have it... the story of red food colouring :-)