Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake

Red Velvet Cake (the actual cake, not the Ben & Jerry's flavor) is something of a mystery. Depending on the exact recipe, red velvet cake typically contains buttermilk and cocoa.  But the mystery is that it's neither chocolate cake (although some people think that it tastes similar) or vanilla cake (although the dessert definitely contains some of that universally loved flavor).  But if it's not chocolate or vanilla cake, carrot cake or cheesecake, what flavor is it, exactly?  It tastes like... red velvet? A mouthful of fuzzy fabric that is typically used to make bell bottoms for hippies and Halloween costumes for Renaissance princess wannabes?  It's a strange name for such a delicious dessert, to say the least.

The name of the dessert seems to come not from its flavoring agents, but rather from the red food coloring that is added to the cake batter, and from the overall pleasing flavor and texture of the cake which perhaps might bring to mind the phrase "as smooth as velvet."  There's my best guess, although a little internet research yielded an additional interesting tidbit. According to Wikipedia, while most red velvet cake recipes use either red food coloring or beet juice to enhance the red tint of the cake batter, the reaction of acidic vinegar and buttermilk in the recipe reveals the red anthocyanin in cocoa - inspiring the name - and also keeps the cake moist, light and fluffy. Wikipedia doesn't mention why the dessert is called "velvet cake" though.

Despite the mystery that nags at my curiosity, Red Velvet Cake is an amazingly delicious dessert, even if it lacks a specific flavor that is readily identifiable to people without food science degrees, culinary training, or food critics with extremely refined palettes.  You don't have to be an expert in taste testing to know that this sh*t is good.

When enjoying a pint of Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake, my gastronomic experience was in fact quite similar. It's not vanilla or chocolate flavored, but it tastes remarkably like that unidentifiable delicious red velvet flavor. (My husband also suggested that it called to mind that other amorphous but beloved confection of my childhood, Funfetti Cake.)  The ice cream itself is sweet and pleasing, and then - oh rapture! - there is a cream cheese frosting swirl throughout. Since cream cheese frosting is one of my favorite ways to top off any kind of cake, my rating of Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake just shot up even further, even though the flavor of the swirl isn't overly distinct from the red velvet/funfetti cake flavor. The cream cheese frosting swirl serves more to enhance and sweeten the red velvet cake base, blending together to produce a fun dessert flavor. This flavor isn't as decadent and heavy as many of the B&J's flavors that I typically love, which often contain various more highly caloric combinations of chocolate and peanut butter, but it's nice to find a flavor that I enjoy so much that provides variety in my usual lineup.

The one downside to this flavor is the chunks of actual red velvet cake, which don't seem to take too kindly to being frozen. While the hearty chunks of brownie in Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie are nice and gooey, these chunks of red velvet cake are more dry and don't seem to retain the original flavor of the cake very well. This makes sense, though, when you consider that brownies are more dense and would hold their moisture better than red velvet cake, which is lighter and fluffier. I would venture to guess that brownies are just better suited for inclusion in ice cream than a cake that is supposed to be airy and fluffy.

That flaw aside, Ben & Jerry's Red Velvet Cake gets 4.5 stars and is pretty high up on my list of favorite flavors. Kudos to Ben & Jerry's for creating such an accurate reproduction of a mysterious flavor.