I see that Rose gives the option to increase the cocoa to 1/4 cup.  Has anyone tried this compared to the 1 teaspoon?  I need to make one of these cakes for a friend and, having never had a Red Velvet Cake before, I don’t really know what his flavor expectations are going to be.

I made the cake without the chocolate boost but next time I make it I might try it.  My family loved it as is, and it is a beautiful, vibrant red.  But we couldn’t place the flavor—was it chocolate? was it not chocolate?  We just couldn’t describe it.  Maybe with the added chocolate it would have a more definite chocolate flavor.  Not that the mystery flavor is bad, it just had us wondering.

I would try it first without he suggested variation, so you have a start to compare.  Most who have tried loved it as is.

i haven’t added the extra but i would think it would make it darker in colour?

Patricia, I would think it would make it darker but it would be more on the brown side though.
When I made it I doubled the chocolate amount, so not quite to the extend that Rose said you can, but a little bit more. And I notice a hint of chocolate flavor. So if you do use 1/4 cup it would taste quite chocolatey.

Ok, y’all convinced me to leave it alone for the first go-round.  Thank you!

Is not the Rev Velvet cake all about this undefined flavor? I mean, it has to be red, but this lack of definition, looks like something essential to this cake…

I made this cake in two 9 inch round pans, so I increased the recipe per layer 10% over the heart pan to account for the larger pan, then doubled it for the two pans.  That’s a factor of 2.2.  This worked nicely for the cake, but I learned an important lesson about this recipe for the frosting…the frosting as listed doesn’t cover the cake!  I didn’t realize that the blob of frosting in the middle of the heart in the photograph in RHC is all you really get; I thought that was merely artistic license showing a cake in the process of being frosted, not the completed cake.  If you want to cover two 9” round cake layers, you need to use a factor of 4.4 for the frosting.  Even at that, the frosting wasn’t super thick, although it was adequate for this type of cake.

I’m not that fond of cream cheese or white chocolate, so I thought the cake was just fair, but everyone else seemed to love it.

When I want to intensify a certain flavor I add a few drops of Lorann Oils. They have tons of flavors (from watermelon, fruit, lemon, lime, orange, etc.) and the chocolate and coffee ones really help chocolate cakes. Most cake stores have them or you can order them online. I did increase it by 1/4 cup one time without the oils and didn’t notice much intensity to the chocolate flavor; some but it’s not suppose to be like a ‘chocolate’ cake flavor wise I don’t think.

Colleen