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Help!; Need an important ingredient.
Topic Started: Feb 28 2010, 04:36 PM (265 Views)
red65
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Hi guys, no I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, just really busy and stuff and spending too much time on FB.

However I am in dire need of some help (not the psychiatric kind - yet). I am going to make my own wedding cake, with three different flavoured tiers. One I have set my heart on is an American recipe, called red velvet. Basically a chocolate cake though the sponge is coloured red. I have just tried it out but I do not have the correct cocoa powder. I need Dutch processed cocoa powder and though I have trawled the internet all afternoon, I can't find a supplier of it anywhere in Britain.

Does anyone know where I can get it? Please?????
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anniebach
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suil
Would Green & Blacks be any good.....looks like it is 'Dutched' from their website....but guess that wouldn't help with the redness unless you use colouring for that???
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red65
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There is red food colouring in the recipe, but it won't go red, and as I had every other ingredient I have to assume that it is the cocoa powder. There's some sort of chemical reacton goes on too with the ingredients and that helps with the red colour too.
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Lancs Dave
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Dutch Cocoa powder is like Yorkshire pudding - it need not be from Yorkshire or Holland! It's all to do with acid and alkaline. Dutch-Processed or Alkalized Unsweetened Cocoa Powder is treated with an alkali to neutralize its acids. Because it is neutral and does not react with baking soda, it must be used in recipes calling for baking powder

Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/cocoa.html

I suspect that most supermarkets sell it, if you read the labels. No doubt this colouring aspect is a factor in which type to use.
Edited by Lancs Dave, Feb 28 2010, 07:09 PM.
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Laurie
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nuin
Wow Dave you're awesome! The recipes I looked at merely said "unsweetened cocoa powder"

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Red-Velvet-Cake-I/Detail.aspx
Edited by Laurie, Feb 28 2010, 07:40 PM.
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Scruffybear
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calltuinn
Wow Lancs Dave does know some stuff !!
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Laird willie h
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Laurie
Feb 28 2010, 07:39 PM
Wow Dave you're awesome! The recipes I looked at merely said "unsweetened cocoa powder"

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Red-Velvet-Cake-I/Detail.aspx
Don't call him awesome , it'll go to his head . :A

Well done Lancs Dave
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Lancs Dave
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The only thing I'm good at is Cutting & Pasting without a join showing! Mind you, if Laurie thinks I'm awesome, I'll accept that. Laurie, you're not so bad yourself!
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red65
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Cheers Dave though I will admit I did know that. And any cocoa powder I have checked out doesn't seem to have gone through the "dutching" process to alkalinise it. Maybe I should start shopping in posher supermarkets!!! rofl

Though the unsweetened natural stuff may work too. The recipe I have tastes absolutely gorgeous, it just doesn't have the lovelty red colour that attracted me to it in the first place. Without it, it is just an exceptionally yummy chocolate cake (no downsides really to that plan then! :D )

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CURIOSITY
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When I've made chocolate cake I used to use Rowntrees coacoa powder which was unsweetened. It was around a long before drinking chocolate
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puffin
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Sainsbury's (own brand) cocoa powder is unsweetened too. I had a "Google" and found lots of recipes with photos showing colours from bright red to not red at all but there was mention in some of beetroot juice as a colouring? Silly idea, but could you use more red food colouring to get to the desired colour?

A possibly even sillier idea, but you know those "harlequin" sponges where you divide the mixture and colour some chocolate, some pink and leave some natural? - well could you experiment with different quantities of red colouring in the basic mixture and note what amount you used for which layer? It might look a bit odd, but you can eat the results and it'll be cheaper than making several practice cakes! Maybe even try beetroot juice in one bit?
Edited by puffin, Mar 2 2010, 12:16 PM.
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red65
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That sounds like a good idea Puffin. I have absolutely no objection to eating as much chocolate cake as I possibly can, it might kill the progress of the diet, so bits of mixture with varying amounts of colouring may be the best option!

Thanks for all your help guys, it really is appreciated. If anyone can think of anything else, please contact me. The wedding isn't until July 2011, but I want to make sure I can do this cake with my eyes shut so I don't stress out too much. And no one so far has complained about the practice runs!! rofl
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Laird willie h
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Gael
Lancs Dave
Mar 1 2010, 08:47 PM
The only thing I'm good at is Cutting & Pasting without a join showing! Mind you, if Laurie thinks I'm awesome, I'll accept that. Laurie, you're not so bad yourself!
Now is that how an old man chats up the ladies . Cutting and pasting rofl I must try that out rofl
Edited by Laird willie h, Mar 2 2010, 06:53 PM.
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