Panera Bread

Red Velvet Crinkle Cookie

Panera Bread in Various US locations

www.panerabread.com/

• Cake: This just tastes like a plain chocolate cookie and is missing any vanilla flavoring.
• Frosting: Dusted in powdered sugar and contains cream cheese chips. Remarkably, the chips DO taste a tiny bit like cream cheese amongst the powerful candy-corn-like sugar punch they pack.
  
• Coloring: Deep, dark red.
  
• Consistency: Nice and soft.
• Additional Comments: This cookie is tasty but it's basically just plain chocolate.

~We give this cookie a 1.5 out of 5 stars~

Godiva Chocolatier

Red Velvet Truffle

Godiva Chocolatier in Various US Locations

www.godiva.com/

• Cake: The truffle tastes just like good chocolate truffle. In this case, there was no hint of vanilla.
• Frosting: The truffle is dipped in white chocolate which neither seems to add nor take away from the overall flavor. It was drizzled in milk(?) chocolate.
  
• Coloring: Deep red
• Consistency: The shell was just hard enough to hold the truffle in tact, and the truffle itself was creamy but with just the right amount of stiffness.
• Additional Comments: Basically just a plain chocolate truffle that happens to be red inside, but Godiva's truffles never disappoint so you're still in for a treat.

~We give this truffle 1.5 out of 5 stars~

Cake Man Raven

Cake Man Raven in New York

https://www.facebook.com/cakemanraven

• Cake: Excellent cocoa flavor, very, very tasty.
• Frosting: We could not tell if this frosting was butter cream or cream cheese but there is a perfect ratio of frosting to cake. It's not an overwhelming flavor, whatever it is, just light and creamy.
  
• Coloring: Fire Engine Red
  
• Consistency: Very moist and delicious. The frosting was perfectly creamy.
• Additional Comments: This cake was very enjoyable. If it had more of a cream cheese taste in the frosting it would be nearly perfect. Most definitely worth the trip to Brooklyn. Get there earlier in the day to ensure you snag a piece. They sell out fast!

~We give this cake 4 out of 5 stars~

Dylan's Candy Bar

Red Velvet Cake Belgian Chocolate Bar

Dylan's Candy Bar in New York

www.dylanscandybar.com/

• Cake: There is a slight hint of cherry in this chocolate bar that was almost reminiscent of the red velvet latte from Caffe Bene. It almost has the same aftertaste as a filled gourmet cream chocolate that you'd get in a box at Valentine's Day. The chocolate flavor prevailed over the cherry, however.
• Frosting: Marshmallow bits were mixed throughout the chocolate bar that didn't really add any overpowering flavor to the chocolate either way.
  
• Coloring: Dark-ish red with some swirls of medium red.
  
• Consistency: Smooth and creamy
• Additional Comments: Strange but not bad!

A visit to Dylan's is a must for the atmosphere alone.

~We give this chocolate bar 3 out of 5 stars~

Georgetown Cupcakes

Georgetown Cupcakes in Various US Locations

http://www.georgetowncupcake.com/

• Cake: Slight cocoa taste but lacks the immediate cocoa bite.
• Frosting: Cream-cheesy goodness.
  
• Coloring: Medium red
  
• Consistency: Slightly hard and bit dried out. It didn't seem very fresh.
• Additional Comments: Overall, this was a good cupcake. Georgetown Cupcakes was made famous with the show DC Cupcakes and has built quite the following and reputation so we had high expectations. To be fair, we did visit the branch located in Discovery Times Square which may attribute to the fact that the cupcake didn't taste quite as fresh as we would hope, so if we ever find ourselves in SoHo with time to spare, we'd be willing to re-evaluate from the actual bakery.

~We give this cupcake 3 out of 5 stars~

Caffe Bene

Red Velvet Latte

Caffe Bene in New York

http://caffebene.com/

 

• Cake: This latte tastes like the cherry ice cream dip from Dairy Queen or Mister Softee. Definite sweet, slight cherry taste, and no cocoa at all. 
• Frosting: Nothing to compare to frosting.
  
• Coloring: Pink and white
  
• Consistency: Creamy and foamy.
• Additional Comments: Well, we have no idea what this is or why the called it red velvet (other than it's red), but it's actually pretty good if you're a fan of the cherry dip. It's just a sweet treat for a cold winter's day, but definitely not for a serious red velvet fiend who is looking for that perfect red velvet...latte...

~We give this latte 2.5 out of 5 stars~

Red Velvet Waffle

Caffe Bene in New York

http://caffebene.com/

 

• Cake: Hot and sweet, but definitely a plain vanilla waffle with no cocoa added.
• Frosting: Powdered sugar, which is always a nice accompaniment.
  
• Coloring: Medium to deep red
  
• Consistency: Rather weird actually. It was nice and super crispy on the outside, and deliciously soft on the inside, but then there were these giant sugar crystals. We're talking clumps of sugar around the size of a small caper. It was rather alarming to bite into these at first before we could figure out what they were. We wound up picking them out.
• Additional Comments: Definitely falls flat in the world of red velvet waffles.

~We give this waffle 2 out of 5 stars~

Dunkin' Donuts

 Dunkin' Donuts in Various US Locations

http://www.dunkindonuts.com/dunkindonuts/en.html

• Cake: Very chocolately. So chocolately that it could easily be confused for the usual glazed chocolate cake donut if you closed your eyes. Still, better to have too much cocoa than not enough.
• Frosting: Glazed with what is supposed to be a cream cheese drizzle, though you can't taste the cream cheese.
  
• Coloring: Beautiful dark red
  
• Consistency: Moist, slight crumble, springy.
• Additional Comments: Also available as donut holes.

~We give this donut 3 out of 5 stars~