This is the season for desserts. At each party the desserts can be amazing. There is one that can be a real showstopper, the red velvet cake. This is a cake that can stop traffic. The cake is just what the name implies. It has a deep rich red color just like red velvet. The icing is creamy white and when the cake is sliced it is unlike any cake you've ever made. The contrast is amazing. When you serve it, everyone is surprised, and it is certain to be a conversation piece.

“It's the Dolly Parton of cakes: a little bit tacky, but you love her,” says Angie Mosier, a board member of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi. While red velvet cake is often found in Southern ladies' kitchens, the colorful dessert is taking hold nationally.

Red velvet cake is a beautifully textured cake with a mild chocolate flavor that just happens to be startlingly red.

This seems to be perfect for the holiday season due to its color and the possibilities of decorating.

Common ingredients include buttermilk, butter, flour, cocoa powder and often either beets or red food coloring.

The most typical frosting for a red velvet cake is a butter roux icing also known as a cooked flour frosting. Cream cheese butter cream frostings are also popular.

Originally, the cake's deep red color was thought to be due to a reaction between early varieties of cocoa and baking soda.

The use of red dye to make red velvet cake was probably started after the introduction of the darker cocoa.

While foods were rationed during World War II, some bakers used boiled beets to enhance the color of their cakes. Boiled grated beets or beet baby food are still found in some red velvet cake recipes.

The story of red velvet cake is connected to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. Legend has it that a woman asked for the recipe for the delicious red velvet cake she was served at the hotel restaurant, only to find that she had been billed $100 for the recipe. She was so angry that she sent it to all her friends as a chain letter.

In Canada, red velvet cake was a well-known signature dessert in the restaurants and bakeries of the Eaton's department store chain in the 1940s and 1950s. It was promoted as an “exclusive” Eaton's recipe. Employees who knew the recipe were sworn to silence.

Red velvet cake is suddenly all the rage. Every new bakery seems to sell a version. Established ones are adding the cake to their menu.

Those that have always made it are having a hard time keeping up with the demand. It has become very popular as a wedding cake. Red velvet cupcakes and brownies are also available. There are even red velvet cake mixes.

I have included two recipes. The first is the original Waldorf recipe, the second uses beets as a coloring agent. You can't taste the beets when this is done. It is a good alternative to the red food coloring. The resulting color will be darker, more burgundy. Enjoy.

This column has been a collaborative effort between Auburn natives chef Max Hitchcock and his mother, Susan Silverman. They can be reached at Birdscapes@adelphia.net

Waldorf Red Cake

1/2 cup Crisco

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 ounces red food coloring

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon soda

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 teaspoon vinegar

Cream shortening; add sugar and eggs, food coloring and vanilla. Cream again. Sift flour, add rest of dry ingredients, sift again. Combine dry ingredients with sugar mixture while adding buttermilk and vinegar. Pour into two greased and floured 9-inch pans and bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Frosting

5 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

Mix flour and milk until smooth. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Cool. Cream sugar, butter and vanilla. Add flour and milk mixture. Beat with electric mixer until fluffy.

When cake is thoroughly cool, split layers in half and heap frosting between each layer, also on top and sides.

Red Velvet Cake with Beets

1 1/2 cups beets; cooked, mashed and cooled

3 eggs

3 ounces cocoa

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups oil

15 ounces flour, sifted

15 ounces sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Cream oil, sugar and vanilla; add in eggs. Add mashed beets; mix to blend.

Sift together three times all dry ingredients; add to oil mixture. Mix for 2 minutes on med-high speed, scraping bowl from time-to-time.

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes.

Cool completely; frost with cream cheese icing.

Cream cheese icing

2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.