Red Velvet cake. Undated

Red Velvet cake. Undated Credit: Handout

I've had it with red velvet cake. That means you, too, red velvet cupcakes. Every bakery I've been to lately— Jacqueline's Patisserie in Babylon, Reinwald's in Huntington, Taste in Syosset, Main Street in Port Washington, Malverne Pastry Shop—it's always the same story: If this isn't the top-selling cake, it's in the top three.

I can't for the life of me figure out why.

You want a cake that has a faint chocolate taste and a ton of red food coloring in it? Red velvet is for you. Most recipes for red velvet cake call for no more than 2 tablespoons of cocoa and up to 4 tablespoons of red food coloring. McCormick's red food coloring contains water, propylene glycol, FD&C reds 40 and 3 and 1percent propylparaben. Yummy!

I can't imagine that it's the taste of red velvet cake that makes it so popular, so it must be the color — a garish, artificial color that exists nowhere in nature.

Can anyone out there make a case for red velvet cake?

 
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