pg 42, The Vegan Table, Rating 7.0, Made the Cut (with a few questions)
For Eliot’s birthday, I made the Red Velvet Cake. It was moist and quite yummy. The icing is beyond delicious. Our guests enjoyed the cake and even took some home! The girls liked the icing but didn’t bother too much with the cake part! I have loads of questions that I can’t seem to answer with this cake.
First, my cake was ready to come out of the oven at the 30 minute mark versus 35 minutes. It is a moist cake but not as moist as the Beet Bundt Cake. What I can’t figure out is the following; why did the bottom and sides of the cake change color to a brown color? And that portion of the cake has a chemically taste that I can’t quite describe. If I can fix this – then the rating changes to 8 or 8.5 and I will make this cake more often.
Now for the buttercream frosting , there is NO way that the picture seen in Colleen’s cookbook used the recipe in the amounts outlined in “The Vegan Table”. As you can see in my picture, I had to use the icing sparingly just in order to cover the cake. I did not have the amount needed to do pretty swirls and waves on my cake. My icing was flat and thin – my only goal was to be able to cover the cake! Next time, I will DEFINATELY double up the recipe. The buttercream frosting is delicious. As you can see, my cake decorating skills need a lot of work – there is a course offered not far from where I live – I might just add it to my ‘to-do’ list!
If anyone has answers on my two-colored cake – please let me know, it’s baffling to me. I tried googling but came up with nothing. Any bakers out there? I used dark pans – could it be some sort of reactive process?
Update: Colleen’s assistant, Amanda and I have come to the conclusion that maybe it had something to do with my dark pans and maybe a reaction to the red food color or just a reaction due to the pans. I am thinking red food color as I have made cakes in these pans without that problem before. I will NEVER use basic red food coloring again. I will try and use natural food colorings from my health food store.
red velvet cake batter
red velvet cake with buttercream icing; recipe from "The Vegan Table"
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March 23, 2010 at 10:23 am
I hate it when cookbook pictures aren’t representative of the recipe. I have noticed another recipe from Vegan Table with the same problem. There was just no way that the picture was from the recipe with out tweaks. Disappointing!
But the cake looks delicious! My husband has been wanting me to make it. I’ll have to remember to double the frosting!
thanks.
March 24, 2010 at 12:07 pm
Hmmm…looks yummy…hope you had a good birthday E-man! Chay…I will definitely take that cake decorating class with you. Let’s sign up when you get back
March 24, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Your cake is beautiful, and I am so enjoying your blog. I own the Vegan Table, and can find the recipes to be hit or miss – some are AMAZING, but some only ok, so I really appreciate having your blog as a resource
March 24, 2010 at 1:17 pm
Thank you for your comment! I hope you continue enjoying reading my blog…lots more cooking to do!!
March 24, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Thanks for sharing! My husband and I made this cake for his brother’s birthday, and we had the same problems: brown, weird-tasting edges and not enough frosting! We ended up adding a layer of coconut-milk ice cream to disguise the oddities, and everyone still enjoyed it.
March 24, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Hi there – I am so glad you experienced the same thing I did – i wonder what could have happened? I think I will e-mail Colleen and see if she has any ideas – will let you know. But I agree with you, everyone did enjoy it and next time we will double up on the frosting.
March 25, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Reading all of the posts makes me want to try and bake this cake just for the fun of it, but 3 tablespoons of red food coloring makes me hesitate. Do you think you could use enough beets to make the color red, but not so much to make it taste like beets? I’m curious to see what suggestions Colleen has to offer.
March 26, 2010 at 11:43 am
Chay~ I have had great success just emailing the info@compassionate cooks alias (which I think you’ve probably decided to try and may have previously used as well). Amanda, Colleen’s assistant is good about getting back to you quite quickly. Just my two cents and I look forward to solving the mystery!
March 27, 2010 at 8:39 am
Hi Barbara,
I think you could use pureed beets but you would have to eliminate some of the other added moisture. Or use 1 cup purreed beets and 1 tbsp red food coloring. I’ve emailed Colleen, just waiting for a response. Will post as soon as she responds! If you bake it using the beets, let me know how you adapted the recipe. I too, would like to eliminate the red food coloring.
March 27, 2010 at 8:47 am
Hi Erin,
I emailed Colleen through facebook so not sure what address it goes to. I will try the email address you mention and see if Amanda responds, thanks for the tip. Maybe I will get a faster response. Thanks.
April 6, 2010 at 4:44 pm
I’ve made this cake without getting the brown on the sides and bottom, my guess is something to do with whatever you use to line the pans with, but I’m not in anyway sure.
As for not using red food coloring, or just not using the stuff with dye in it there are natural colorings available and recipes online that use beets instead of coloring and have good reviews. I just googled “red velvet cake using beets,” most recipes will have to be modified to be vegan.
I also use more cocoa than in The Vegan Table, but not enough to kill the red color.
April 11, 2010 at 7:13 am
Hi Sarah! I just found some natural red food coloring at my local Nature’s Way and will use it next time. In addition, I sprayed the pans with a cooking spray (not Pam) but something similar – a canola oil spray. Thank you for your tips – i look forward to mastering this cake!
April 25, 2010 at 8:29 pm
OK, I finally had an occasion to justify making this cake (congratulations to my daughter for making cheerleading – yay!). I used ½ cup of cooked/pureed fresh beets and 1 teaspoon of red food coloring. I wanted it to be red, but I didn’t want it to taste like beets. The batter looked just as red as can be, but the cake cooked up to be more reddish brown than red. It didn’t have that two-toned thing going on. The cake cooked up nice and high and the texture was moist without being too dense. I used half unbleached flour and half whole-wheat pastry flour. I would make it this way again.
April 26, 2010 at 7:48 am
Ahhhh, perfect. Thanks for trying and letting everyone know. I will use this method next time as well. In addition, I am going to use one light colored pan and one dark colored pan, just to see if its the pan reacting and causing the discoloration around the edges.
But more importantly, congratulations to your daughter! She must so excited!
May 3, 2010 at 7:27 am
Hi Chay, very interesting about the two-toned cake. I really think it had to do with the cooked batter being at the bottom and sides of the cake pan. And it being hotter at those surfaces than the middle of the cake batter (up higher). I wonder if using a waxed paper liner type of thing would cause it NOT to go brown? Or do you worry about the chemical reaction of having a waxy substance on your food?
I also have to usually double the recipe for things like frosting, so I can slather it on thicker. And keeping the icing at room temperature, so you can make those fancy designs. If you take a cake-baking class, know that having things like real butter/dairy/eggs/sugar makes the icing have a different spreading ability than doing it vegan. I notice my vegan cookies not having that light, buttery bite, but are almost like hockey pucks (due to using a whole wheat pastry flour which is more dense).
May 3, 2010 at 7:41 am
Thanks Mary! I will try with wax paper and see what happens….my daughters birthday is coming up so might be brave and try this cake again with double the icing, beets instead of food coloring and wax paper. I just loved the icing! And thanks for the tip on keeping the icing at room temperature.
May 17, 2010 at 4:33 pm
I loved all these comments as much as I did reading your blog
How Fun! And what a lucky Daddy!
Keep cookin Chay!
Melinda
August 20, 2010 at 7:18 am
Hi. I had a similar problem with a different recipe from The Vegan Table- the chocolate chocolate chip cookies. The recipe states that it makes 12 cookies. Unless each cookie is the size of a dinner plate, there is no way! I came out with 26 cookies. I also wish that she gave a little instruction. For example, “whip flaxseed and water together until mixture reaches a thick and creamy, almost gelatinous consistency”. Since I had never done this before, it would have been so helpful to know about how long it would take to reach this consistency – 10 seconds? one minute? Anyway, your blog is helping me sooooo much with your ratings, comments and recommendations. Thank you so much for helping me use and enjoy The Vegan Table even more!