I think the recipe is an old recipe, from a time when today's ingredients were harder to get or unreliable. The cake is leavened by the interaction between acids and bases, helped slightly by eggs. The acids are most often buttermilk, vinegar, and cocoa powder, while the base element of the equation comes from the baking soda. The resulting cake is not as light and fluffy as cakes leavened by other methods.
I think the crumb of the cake is what got it the descriptive fabric name. The cake has a unique crumb, moist and springy, but still firm. The crumb is the velvet, and that comes from the ingredients and the way the cake is put together more than anything else.
I think the color is immaterial to the cake. The added color could be green, yellow, blue or orange, or there could be no additional color at all, and the texture and crumb of the cake would likely not be changed. I know that commercial red food coloring has no nutritional value whatsoever and is generally considered to be culinarily inert. The color has nothing to do with the cake.
I know that, in the US at least, the cake grew in popularity after the Waldorf-Astoria served it. I know that there was a resurgence in popularity when the cake was used as the groom's cake in the movie Steel Magnolias. I know that, partly because of the role in the movie, many people believe it to be a strictly Southern thing.
I believe that it must be a cocoa-based, but not chocolate, cake. I believe that the coloring, if added, must be artificial and in liquid form. I believe the amount of the color in the cake (usually around ¼ cup or 2 ounces) makes up part of the liquid ingredients in the cake, and leaving it out would change the delicate balance of the cake's ingredients. Baking is a science and ratios must be maintained.
I also believe that cream cheese frosting is never acceptable on a velvet cake, regardless of color. But unless it's a carrot cake, I really don't think cream cheese frosting should be a choice for anything. As far as frosting goes, my mother used a version of buttercream with shorting rather than butter. I tend to think the more appropriate frosting is an ermine frosting, which was the choice of the Waldorf-Astoria for its version of the cake. I am not sure what kind of frosting was used for the armadillo in Steel Magnolias. In all the times I was close enough to do so, I never asked at the bakery that made the cake for the movie, but I doubt it was a cream cheese frosting, as the bakery is known more for its buttercream frostings.
Controversial though it may be, Red Velvet Cake is one of my favorite cakes -- when it's well made. Too many commercial versions of the cake are simply dyed versions of tasteless plain cakes. Too many commercial versions are dry and dense, with a cardboard texture. And far too many are topped with mountains of sickly sweet cream cheese frosting.
Like so many dishes, both sweet and savory, the origins and authenticity of Red Velvet Cake will be debated forever. And like all the others, everyone will have their favorite versions, and maintain their personal belief those versions are the only correct ones. I'm no different. I have not only a definitive version of the recipe, but also an acceptable season in which to serve the cake.
For me, Red Velvet Cake is a holiday season dessert, though not a Christmas dessert. It was more often for my father's birthday, which happens to be the day after Christmas. So it was very fitting that to celebrate my father's 70th birthday this Boxing Day, I made a Red Velvet Cake, with an ermine frosting.
My cake turned out beautifully, and the frosting was yummy, though the instructions on the version I was using were incomplete, so I will have to make it again to see if I can do it a bit better. Next year I'll try again.
