I do mean Red Velvet, of course.
Red Velvet started out as the Red Velvet cake or Devil's cake as some called it. One may wonder why, in the course of history, patisseries suddenly decided to colour a cake red (mostly with beetroot but now sadly food colouring), and why particularly red! Had the course of events been any different we could've possibly had maybe a blue, yellow or even green velvet but somehow, now having been spoilt, anything but red doesn't go down as appetising. So, in my wonder of how Red Velvet took the world by storm, I researched further and found, probably, the reason for its name.
The answer is as nerdy as it can get but for those really keen to know, It's ideally the reaction of buttermilk and acid that brings out the anthocyanin in cocoa giving the iconic red colour and making it moist, hence velvet. The ideal toppings for these, that I have personally tasted, would be buttercream and cream cheese and both go really well, though cream cheese definitely rocks the boat and tradition states there was a Roux Icing too but I can see why that wouldn't have worked. The main question one asks, is what is so extra-ordinary in red velvet, unlike the Cronut, the Pizza Cone, Cinnabon and many others like it that took this city by storm and then suddenly just disappeared while Red Velvet remained to haunt us. I mean haunt in the literal sense of the word, Red Velvet has diversified into cakes, cupcakes, shakes, ice creams and many more. It's freakishly everywhere I go and I'm frankly done with it. Last night, as I glanced over the menu of Byblos, the restaurant I last reviewed, I did notice a particular dish that caught my eye: The Red Velvet Gnocchi, a detail I reserved for this article solely.
I've spent many hours indecisive whether this was truly worthy of writing about, whether maybe, I was wrong about how mainstream this is. But that dish on the menu confirmed my beliefs that night and hence the article. So it was basically Gnocchi with a few flavourings and beetroot predominant for the colour. Red Velvet now in savoury? Great. Well it wasn't Red Velvet in the true sense of the word but it had beetroot which lent it an authenticity most dishes using that title don't possess these days. Red Velvet Milkshake has always tasted like shit to me. Red shit with milk and red cake powder sprinkled on top. Red velvet cupcakes and cakes all come down to the frosting. Cookies on the other hand, another fad likely to stay, just don't go with red velvet while those cake jars definitely do. And ladies, anything that's red velvet isn't fucking cute or always delicious so please just shutup till you taste it.
Coming back to the everlasting question in my mind, well it'll last till red velvet stays at least, which seems like a long time; is why red velvet got so famous in the first place? Was it the colour? The name? The Cream cheese maybe? Or was it just bloody-well timed!
Whatever the goddamn answer, it looks like Red Velvet is here to stay and I'm just gonna have to deal with it.