IT’S a cake that can stop traffic. The layers are an improbable red that
can vary from a fluorescent pink to a dark ruddy mahogany. The color,
often enhanced by buckets of food coloring, becomes even more
eye-catching set against clouds of snowy icing, like a slash of glossy
lipstick framed by platinum blond curls. Even the name has a vampy
allure: red velvet.
It’s the Dolly Parton of cakes: a little bit tacky, but you love her!
But no matter how you slice it — or bake it — red velvet cake is suddenly
all the rage. Every new bakery seems to sell a version. Established
ones are adding the cake to their repertory, and those that have always
made it are hard pressed to keep up with the demand. In New York City,
more than 20 bakeries now sell red velvet cake or cupcakes, threatening
to end the long reign of the city’s traditional favorites, cheese cake
and dark chocolate blackout.
More recently, the cake scored a public-relations coup of sorts when the
singer Jessica Simpson served a towering hexagonal version at her
wedding to Nick Lachey in 2002. It was made by Sam Godfrey, owner of the
bakery Perfect Endings in Napa, Calif., who said he included a red
velvet sample among the cakes he gave Ms. Simpson “because she’s from
Texas.” He wasn’t prepared for her reaction. When she chose it I was
dumbstruck,” he said. “Then she talked about it all over television.
IT'S PERSONALLY MY FAVORITE! #TEAMREDVELVETCAKE
