Adams Extract, a Texas company, is credited for bringing the red velvet
cake to kitchens across America during the time of the Great Depression
by being one of the first to sell red food colouring and other flavour
extracts with the use of point of-sale posters and tear-o recipe cards.
The cake and its original recipe, however, are well known in the United
States from New York City’s famous Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. However, it is
widely considered a Southern recipe. Traditionally, the cake is iced
with a French-style butter roux icing (also called ermine icing), which
is very light and fluffy but time-consuming to prepare. Cream cheese
frosting and buttercream frosting are variations which have increased in
popularity.