Yummy Malaysiana: Painting the town Red Velvet

Painting the town Red Velvet

The Daily Grind's towering Red Velvet with French butter cream is luscious and luxurious. Picture by Choo Choy May.

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 Walk into any cafe or gourmet restaurant and you will most probably find Red Velvet cake on the menu. The latest craze in the pastry world is the ambiguously named cake that is usually found in a reddish hue, topped with cream cheese frosting.

I see photos of it on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I hear people gushing about it. One things for sure, when Malaysians go crazy about food fads, you get dragged into it as well (literally and figuratively).

Just Heavenly's Red Velvet is a sight to behold and it is a best-seller at their outlets. Picture by Choo Choy May.

I first discovered Red Velvet in the form of a cupcake at Wondermilk in 2008 when I ordered a dozen for my 24th birthday (yes, now you know my age). According to Wondermilk, their Red Velvet flavour has been around since 2003. But back then, I dont think I could find Red Velvet in the form of cakes.

Fast forward to 2006 and Just Heavenly introduces their Red Velvet cake at their Plaza Damansara outlet. Nigel Skelchy of Just Heavenly decided to add Red Velvet cake to the menu because his friend was raving about the cake he tasted in the United States.

Skelchy tried at least eight different recipes before he decided that his Red Velvet was ready to be sold. He uses natural occurring colouring to give the Red Velvet its colour.

Examples of natural occurring colouring are beetroot and strawberries which are used to give the Red Velvet its reddish colour. How Red Velvet gets its colour and flavour is when an acidic s! ubstance like Dutch processed cocoa reacts to buttermilk which are both used in Red Velvet.

We use buttermilk in our recipe and our Red Velvet is actually similar to New Yorks Waldorf Astoria Hotels. We used that to springboard our version, said Skelchy.

Fatboybakes.blogspot.com is another place to check out Red Velvet if you are interested. They do not have a retail shop so you have to order your Red Velvet through the bakers blog.

Fatboybakes' Red Velvet is only sold online.

If you are uncomfortable about the red colouring, Fatboybakes also offers Chocolate Cheese Velvet where instead of pure cream cheese sandwiching the layers, it has a layer of dark chocolate cream, a layer of cream cheese, and topped with dark chocolate ganache.

Cheng Yi of Fatboybakes only found out about Red Velvet when he went to a sampling session organised by (surprise, surprise!) Nigel Skelchy. He also remembers coming across Red Velvet while watching an episode of Brothers and Sisters, an American TV series.

Fatboybakes rendition of the Red Velvet uses beetroot because it gives an earthy flavour, one that is personally favoured by the baker himself.

I think Red Velvet is a novelty and it appeals more to females. Some places, it is just red coloured sponge cake, said Cheng Yi when I asked him what he thought about the craze. Now that I think about it, I never see men raving about Red Velvet cake. Unless of course, they are dragged into it by their girlfriends, wives or female friends.

Another place where you can find Red Velvet cake is The Daily Grind and unlike most places where cream cheese frosting is used, thier take on the popular cake is topped with French butter cream frosting. This un! ique top ping gives The Daily Grinds Red Velvet a very light cake that is easy on your palate.

Our version of the Red Velvet uses buttermilk, chocolate and cream. It is fluffy, delicious and old-fashioned. Old-fashioned in a way that we use French butter cream frosting which invokes nostalgia. We did not use cream cheese because it is heavy, and if you noticed our Red Velvet is a large cake so if we were to use cream cheese and other heavy ingredients, it would not be so popular, said Yeoh Way Cheng, owner of The Daily Grind.

Yeoh tells me that they tried experimenting with American recipes that uses white icing but it was not the same. But it is a good thing they stuck to French butter cream frosting because it is the best-selling cake at The Daily Grind.

Whisk's Red Velvet cake and cupcake use different types of frosting. Picture by Lydia Koh.

A warning though, the cake is a generous portion so unless if you are starving, it is best shared with a group of people. When it is brought to the table though, you can be sure everyone is impressed with this beautiful slice of Red Velvet.

Like many cafes selling cakes, Whisks Red Velvet is the best-seller among patrons. The family-run business has two versions of Red Velvet in the form of cupcakes and cakes.

We experimented with many recipes and tweaked until we created the version of Red Velvet we have today. Basically our cake has buttermilk, cocoa and vanilla and it gives out this moist, decadent and luxurious texture. For our cupcakes we use butter cream cheese frosting while we use sugar icing cream cheese for our cakes, said Nora Khalid, co-founder of Whisk.

And j ust when you thought you got this whole Red Velvet thing figured out, Wondermilk announced their Foxy Red Velvet Smoothie in April so those who are addicted to the Red Velvet flavour should check it out.