From Rare to Overdone

Fifteen years ago, I might have put red velvet cake on the endangered dishes list. It was a rarity and seemed like a relic, and Jane and I were thrilled whenever we found some. Now, cakes, cupcakes, brownies and Whoopie Pies labeled "red velvet" are everywhere, in colors from scarlet to blushing brown, chocolaty and/or buttermilky. White cake and coconut cake have become the hard-to-find-ones -- the culinary cognate of Jane and John becoming less popular than Britney and Jayden. Here is photographic evidence, in the form of a cupcake found at a snack shop in the Delta terminal at JFK airport. (While gastroanthropologically interesting, the cupcake is not one I'd recommend. But upon arriving in Seattle, I did have some really swell cupcakes, about which I shall write soon.)