'A Little Taste Of Heaven': Shoppers Love This Store-Bought Red Velvet Cake

Lately, our minds have gravitated towards red velvet cake. The flavor of red velvet cake sometimes needs to be explained — it's a mixture of cocoa and vanilla, with a sour splash from vinegar — but most people love its vivid scarlet hue, no matter how you slice it or ice it (usually with cream cheese frosting!). When a Foodie feature writer ranked the best store-bought red velvet cakes by reviews, a few commonalities emerged. Winning cakes were moist, light and fluffy, with frosting that was sweet and nuanced, never saccharine and flat.

Close to the top of the heap was The Father's Table red velvet roll cake, which distinguished itself by virtue of shelf-stability; in other words, you don't need to stash it in the fridge to keep this treat in its best condition. Our writer tracked it down at several major supermarket chains, including Albertsons, HEB, and Safeway. Numerous reviews around the web point to the worthiness of this cake. A Facebook comment on a post by The Father's Table dubbed the roll cake "a little taste of Heaven," while a Safeway shopper raved, "Love this red velvet cake roll [...] I've bought this several times and it is delicious." Also on Facebook, a commenter dubbed the red velvet cake "El mejor de los mejores para San Valentín," or the best of the best for Valentine's Day.

Several unique elements contribute to buyers' love for this cake roll. For one thing, it's kosher-certified. The roll cake format means that an abundance of cloying frosting doesn't get in the way — buttercream is rolled up in the middle, while the exterior of the cake is dusted lightly with powdered sugar. It slices up into seven servings, which is probably just about right for everyone in your family to have a bit with room for seconds. We did notice that the cake contains red dye, as many commercial red velvet cakes do, although not Red Dye No. 3, which is the subject of an FDA ban. The Father's Table, based in Florida, uses no high fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated oils in its baking, and, instead, opts for real cream cheese, sour cream, and vanilla. If glowing reviews are to be trusted, it's a difference that you can taste.

For the holiday that's all about love, we can see dishing up an exquisite dessert with a circular slice of red velvet roll cake and a perfectly spherical scoop of the best vanilla bean ice cream you can muster, served alongside some fresh berries and maybe a drizzle of high-quality chocolate. Even beyond February, we love some red velvet cake for an indulgent treat, so you can bet that we'll have our eyes peeled specifically for The Father's Table cake when we're out and about.