Red Velvet Pound Cake Recipe
The Taste of Red Velvet Cake in a Pound Cake Version
Pound Cakes are popular in the South, and there are many versions. Another Southern favorite is Red Velvet Cake. This cake recipe combines elements of both.
If you love the taste of Red Velvet Cake, but you want a slightly (not much) lighter cake (doesn't have frosting) that is a bit quicker to make, then a Red Velvet Pound Cake may be just the recipe you're looking for.
This cake is popular at pot luck dinners. It travels well, looks pretty and tastes great.
Red Velvet Pound Cake
Ingredients:
- 3 cups sugar
- 5 eggs
- 1/2 cup Crisco (solid and not oil)
- 1 cup butter (margarine is also fine)
- 1 ounce red food coloring
- 3 cups plain flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa (powder in the baking section)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla flavoring
Directions:
- It's a good idea to let the butter or margarine sit out a while to soften a bit. It makes it easier to mix up the cake.
- In a large mixing boww, cream the sugar, eggs, Crisco, butter and the food coloring. Mix for quite a while. When making pound cakes, the extra beating time helps the cake turn out fluffier and higher.
- In a medium mixing bowl, sift or stir together well the dry ingredients. This would be the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
- Measure the milk in a measuring cup and add the vanilla flavoring.
- Alternate putting in some of the flour mixture and then some of the milk mixture. Again, beat well. Three or four rotations of the flour and milk ingredients works out well, so just think in thirds or fourths when mixing.
- Grease a 10 inch tube pan with Crisco and then lightly flour or use Pam spray and again very lightly flour. Go very easy on the flour, since the cake has a red color, and the flour can show. It usually brushes right off, unless you've really put in a lot of flour. It's OK to skip the flouring part, but most traditional Southern cooks do flour pound cake pans.
- Bake for an hour and a half or thereabouts in a 10 inch pound or tube cake pan at 300 degrees F. You can preheat or start with a cold oven. The cake takes just a little longer if started in a cold oven. The outside of the cake is a little thicker and crunchier with a cold oven start and a bit softer with a preheated start. Times vary some oven to oven, so check after about an hour and 20 minutes. Use a toothpick. It should come out clean when the cake is done.
It's fine to frost the Red Velvet Pound Cake. It's, then, more similar to a traditional Southern Red Velvet Cake.
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Ironically, the original Red Velvet Cake was developed at the Waldorf=Astoria (yes-there is an equal mark in the middle). It was likely inspired by Southern cakes. The base there is beats to give the red color. Most Southern cooks today use food coloring. Before such convenience ingredients were easily available, cooks used various food items to give color and flavor.
Other Favorite Southern Pound Cake Recipes:
Southern Cream Cheese Pound Cake
