Red velvet cake is wrapped up in urban legend and embedded in Southern tradition. How to Make Red Velvet Cake will teach you to make this delicious, blood red dessert.

If you've seen the movie Steel Magnolias, you've seen a red velvet cake. Remember the armadillo groom's cake with the blood red interior? However, red velvet cake's history reaches farther back than 1989. An urban legend claims that the cake was first concocted by a chef at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. Supposedly, a woman who wrote to the chef requesting the recipe received an unexpected bill charging her $100 for the formula.Wikipedia: Red Velvet Cake Irate, she paid the bill and then began passing out copies of the recipe to everyone she met. Whatever the true origins of the red velvet cake, it certainly makes an interesting and delicious dessert. Serve it up to your friends and embellish the story as you will.

If you have a macabre sense of humor, feel free to shape your cake into animal form. On the other hand, you could also shape a cake into the form of a heart and serve it to your sweetie on Valentine's Day. Once you've thoroughly enjoyed red velvet cake, check out some of Mahalo's other dessert recipes, such as those for chocolate mousse, banana pudding and pumpkin pie.

1. 1/2 c. shortening
2. 2 1/2 c. sugar, divided
3. 2 eggs
4. 2 tbsp. cocoa
5. 2 oz. red food coloring
6. 2 tsp. vanilla, divided
7. 2 1/4 c. cake flour
8. 1 tsp. salt
9. 1 c. buttermilk
10. 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
11. 1 tsp. vinegar
12. 5 1/2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
13. 1 c. milk
14. 1 c. butter

• Electric mixer

• Whisk

• Saucepan

• Two or three 9-inch cake pans

• You can make as many layers to the cake as you like. Just be sure to adjust cooking times so that thinner layers won't burn.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Grease the inside of two or three 9-inch cake pans and coat with flour. Tap out excess flour.
3. Sift or whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa powder.
4. Whisk together the vinegar, buttermilk, food coloring, oil and vanilla.
5. Cream the sugar with the eggs, either with a hand-held mixer or a whisk.
6. Beat in alternately the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture. Make sure to start and end with the dry mixture.
7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

1. Some recipes call for different kinds of icing, though the butter roux frosting remains a standard. Cream cheese icing is a favorite.FoodNetwork.com: Red Velvet Cake

2. Adjust the color of the cake by varying the amounts of red food coloring and cocoa powder in your batter. One recipe calls for a full 1/4 cup of red dye!RecipeZaar: Really Red Red Velvet Cake (April 21, 2003)

3. You can make red velvet cake from boxed white or German chocolate cake mix.RecipeZaar: Easy Red Velvet Cake (April 8, 2002) Betty Crocker: Easy Red Velvet Cake

4. Consider adding some raspberry filling to your cake.RecipeZaar: Red Velvet Cake with Raspberry Filling (December 3, 2004)

5. Make red velvet cake bars or cupcakes.FoodNetwork.com: Red Velvet Bars Epicurious: Red Velvet Cupcakes with Creamy Vanilla Icing

• This is a recipe for butter roux frosting, the most traditional icing for a red velvet cake.Wikipedia: Red Velvet Cake

1. Combine the milk and flour in a saucepan and cook on medium heat until thickened.
2. Cream together sugar, vanilla and butter, beating until fluffy.
3. Gradually beat milk mixture into butter mixture. Beat until the frosting becomes fluffy and spreadable.

• Try not to pull up crumbs from the cake as you frost. The red color of the cake is more surprising if the white frosting betrays no hint of it. Be generous with the icing, as it's easy to make more.

• All Recipes: Red Velvet Cake I

• Bake Space: Butter Roux Frosting (October 31, 2007)

• Food&Wine: Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Ice Cream (November 2005)

• FoodNetwork.com: Red Velvet Cake

• JoyofBaking.com: Red Velvet Cake

• Martha Stewart: Red Velvet Cake

• RecipeZaar: Waldorf-Astoria Red Velvet Cake (May 11, 2001)

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