Sweet biscuits and gravy sounds like a gimmick, right? Well, there’s documentation of this dish being made as far back as the 1700s. It’s a fascinating example of how migration along the Appalachian trading route helped establish Indigenous Mexican influence on Southern cuisine.
Thickened in the traditional French way, warm, spicy, and faintly bitter Mexican chocolate ganache forms the “gravy” for raw-sugar-crusted biscuits. It’s great with any biscuit recipe really, though. The relationship of sugared biscuits to plain ones is very similar to that of pâte sucrée (sweet pastry crust) to pâte brisée (savory pie dough).
This cake’s color hinges on the anthocyanins found in red wine and raw cocoa, as even organic brands of “natural” cocoa powder lose their colorful potential in the roasting process. They create a shockingly pale batter, but in the oven it develops a mellow burgundy hue and rich cocoa flavor (plus, these acidic ingredients make for a velvety soft crumb). Paired with light and tangy Cream Cheese Frosting, it’s everything red velvet should be.