Akron Restaurant’s Red Velvet Cake comes from Lancaster County, Amish country. A pillar establishment of the area renowned for classic stick-to-your-ribs meals and decadent desserts, Akron Restaurant, unfortunately, closed its doors. But luckily, not everything was lost. This cake is straight from the restaurant itself and it’s the red velvet cake you’ve wished you’d encountered earlier.

Even if you don’t live in Pennsylvania, this restaurant’s claim to fame via classic cakes was only known in small pockets of the internet. After reading the nostalgic buzz around this restaurant’s cake, my interest was piqued. With a little bit of searching, I finally stumbled across the mysterious Akron Restaurant’s Red Velvet Cake, and I’m glad I did. Submitted to a regional Lancaster newspaper, the ingredient list for the Red Velvet cake was submitted by a local resident JoLynna Cottle. Many restaurants keep their recipes secret even after closing, but many people felt this was the best way to preserve the memory of a long-loved establishment.

There are red velvet cakes, and then there are outstanding red velvet cakes, and this recipe from Akron Restaurant is just that. A delicate but moist crumb houses a hint of chocolate and vanilla. The bright red color contrasts against a white, silky Miracle Frosting.

After prepping your pans, shift the dry ingredients into a bowl. Get your wet ingredients whipped all together and then go onto the red part of the red velvet cake. In a glass bowl (or measuring cup), whisk the cocoa powder and the red food dye together. If you use a plastic bowl, the bowl might be irreversibly stained by red dye.

Use a rubber spatula to fold the dry ingredients in initially, and then use the mixer to blend, do the same gentle adding for the buttermilk. Slowly is highly recommended! You don’t want the kitchen re-decorated in powdery flour or red food coloring.

Once completely mixed, add into a pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, depending on your oven. Cool the red velvet cake layers on a wire racking completely. If you’re not assembling the cake right away, go ahead and wrap the cake layers individually with plastic wrap and transfer them to the refrigerator.

Now comes the best part — assembling! Level off the cake layers with a serrated knife, this will give you bakery-worthy even layers. You can reserve the cake top and crumble it up and use it as garnish.

While the original recipe for Akron Restaurant’s Red Velvet Cake frosting was available, it didn’t make enough to decorate, and the lack of instructions led me to use a different ratio of ingredients, so I went about finding a solution. I added a special ingredient to stabilize the frosting and doubled a traditional frosting recipe.

This frosting is not overly sweet and moistens the cake, keeping it fresh for days (which is a trick a lot of restaurants do to lengthen the shelf life of their cakes). More frosting equals a fresher cake crumb.

After working around some ratios, the cake came together with this Miracle Frosting. Akron Restaurant’s Red Velvet Cake is a towering delight of fork-tender cake and fluffy frosting. It’s a classic from the past that still holds up and is remembered to this day.