Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Cake 1920s Recipes

Steps:

• Cream shortening, sugar and eggs.
• Make a paste of food coloring and cocoa.
• Add to creamed mixture.
• Add buttermilk alternating with flour and salt.
• Add vanilla.
• Add soda to vinegar, and blend into the batter.
• Pour into 3 or 4 greased and floured 8" cake pans.
• Bake at 350°F for 24-30 minutes.
• Split layers fill and frost with the following frosting.
• Frosting: Add milk to flour slowly, avoiding lumps.
• Cook flour and milk until very thick, stirring constantly.
• Cool completely.
• Cream sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.
• Add to cooked mixture.
• Beat, high speed, until very fluffy.
• Looks and tastes like whipped cream.

Steps:

• Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
• Butter three 9" round cake pans and line them with parchment paper or waxed paper.
• Melt Chocolate in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of boiling water or in the top of a double boiler (or melt in microwave for 20 - 25 seconds).
• Meanwhile. place the sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed for two minutes.
• In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt.
• Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and continue to mix on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula so everything is well incorporated.
• Add the melted chocolate to this mixture and continue to mix on low speed. Add the pureed beets and food coloring.
• Continue to mix on low speed until everything is thoroughly combined.
• Evenly divide the batter between the three prepared pans and tap down to remove air bubbles.
• Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until center of cake springs back when touched, or when an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
• Remove the pans from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool for ten minutes in the pans, then turn the layers out onto the rack and let cool completely.
• Icing: Pour cream into a small bowl and whip to soft peaks. Set aside in the refrigerator.
• Place the cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until it is soft and smooth.
• Add the mascarpone and continue to mix on low speed until the cheeses are well combined.
• Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and mix until everything is just combined.
• Turn off the mixer and fold in the whipped cream by hand with a spatula.
• Keep refrigerated until ready to assemble.
• Chef's note: Sliced canned beets are easier to work with in this recipe than whole beets.
• Original Poster's note - This cake works well as a wedding cake but use a cream cheese/buttercream as the icing noted here will not harden.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray three 9-inch round cake pans with flour-added cooking spray. For a higher ratio of cake to frosting, use two 9×2 inch pans. You may also use three 8-inch pans. If you use three 8-inch or go with two 9-inch, you will probably need to tack on about 4 minutes to the cook time due to the batter being deeper. Using high speed of electric mixer, beat shortening and sugar until creamy. Beat in eggs, vanilla extract and butter extract, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Make a paste of red food coloring and cocoa powder, then stir that in. Or, do what I did and stir the red food coloring and cocoa in, then beat. When the batter turns red, stir in the salt and beat so that it's very well mixed. Starting and ending with flour, add the flour and buttermilk alternately to batter, stirring so that flour gets absorbed. Place the baking soda in a little cup. Add the vinegar to the baking soda, then stir the fizzy vinegar mixture into the cake batter to lighten it. Now, dump the cake batter into the pans, dividing evenly. Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. Let cakes cool in pans on a rack for 10 minutes. Flip out of pans and cool completely. Note: If your oven runs hot, cook the red velvet cake at 325 degrees F. The cakes will turn out dry if overcooked. Make the frosting. In a heavy saucepan, whisk together 3 tablespoons of flour and 1/4 cup of the milk until smooth. Whisk in salt and remaining milk. Turn heat to medium and cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick and creamy. Let it cool completely. Using your electric mixer, beat butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the thoroughly cooled flour mixture. Beat and beat until the icing is fluffy and no longer grainy (this may take a while, depending on how good your mixer is). For this recipe, I recommend using a stand mixer. Cover cake with frosting.