A deliciously delicate dessert from African American culinary culture
Each month, we roll out a different set of Bakehouse specials. This month has a particularly noteworthy offering of Black History Month cupcakes —what we could call a delicious manifestation of healthy diversity to delight your palate! The Bakehouse crew share,
This month, we’re making a special cupcake to honor Black History Month. Decadent red velvet cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing and a red, yellow, and green fondant heart.
We will also be making donations to We the People Opportunity Farm, whose mission is to reduce recidivism by providing formerly incarcerated individuals with meaningful work, mentorship, and a supportive community; and the Washtenaw County Black Farmers Fund, which works to build a more equitable food system by investing in Black Farmers.
Eleven years ago, longtime New York Times food writer Kim Severson explored the origins of this ever-popular but persistently mysterious red velvet cake:
The red velvet cake, with its artificial coloring and benign cocoa sweetness has always been about commercialization. But it has honest roots. … Velvet cakes, without the coloring, are older than Fannie Farmer.
While most folks have heard of red velvet cake, far fewer of them know anything about its history. Friend and culinary historian Adrian Miller did his usual deep research and, much to his surprise, it seems red velvet was a relatively recent addition to the African American culinary story. It started showing up, Adrian concluded, on African-American family tables sometime in the 1950s as a Christmas cake. He also uncovered a 1948 print recipe for a devil’s food cake that was made with red food coloring in A Date With a Dish: A Cook Book of American Negro Recipes.
Red velvet cake today is a widely appreciated work of historically meaningful culinary art. It tastes great and it honors a community whose history is critical to what has made the country what it is. The Black History Month cupcakes will be available at the Deli, the Roadhouse, Miss Kim, and, of course, in the Bakeshop throughout February.
