A Yugoslavian recipe for Britanic Columbia cake calls for red sugar.
What is red sugar? Also it calls for 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp
sodium...what?

According to my Serbian friend, "red sugar" is almost certainly brown
sugar and the "sodium" is baking soda.  I did not attempt to convert
your recipe, but am providing one from my personal files that is
virtually the same cake.

APPLE DAPPLE CAKE

1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar 
3 cups of flour
3 eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 teaspoon cinnamon 
3 cups diced apples
1 cup of pecans or walnuts
1 cup of raisins (optional)

Syrup: 
1 cup brown sugar
 1/4 cup milk
 1/2 cup butter
 l teaspoon of vanilla. 

Cream oil, sugar and eggs. Add soda, salt, flour and cinnamon, which
have been sifted together. Fold in apples, nuts, raisins, vanilla.
Pour into ungreased tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F. for l hour and 20
minutes. Remember to cut the baking time in half if baking in two pans
-- test to be sure it is done before removing from oven.

Loosen cake from sides of pans and punch holes in top of cake with a
fork.
Syrup:
Melt butter and add sugar and milk.
Boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Pour syrup
over cake while both are still warm. Let set 10 minutes, then remove
from pan.

The only reference I have found to red sugar is simply sugar that is
colored red. Can you post the recipe?

-THV

In the Philippines, what people call as red sugar is actually brown.
The recipe may actually be referring to brown sugar.

It's weird for a Yugoslavian recipe to mention red sugar, since the
most mentions about red sugar point to Indonesia. It seems like red
sugar is extracted from a palm tree (Arenga Saccharifera) and it's a
basic food there (the red from the Indonesian flag comes from this red
sugar, the white from rice - "Indonesia", FlagSpot.net,
http://flagspot.net/flags/id.html ). I also found mentions about red
sugar related to Omen and Bali.

About your second question (I guess there is a second question) it's
sodium bicarbonate.

For more information use Google Search on any combination of the
following terms: "red sugar", palm, "Arenga Saccharifera" or
Indonesia.

SAfe.

1 tsp sodium is certainly 100% wrong. Sodium is extremely reactive and
may burst into flame when it comes into contact with water.

Probably it was asking for sodium chloride (NaCl) which is table salt.
But why would it then ask for another teaspoon of salt...

Adressing Supermacman's concerns over sodium bicarbonate flaming up in
water.  While pure sodium is pretty volatile, sodium bicarbonate is
also known as baking soda.  I dissolove a teaspoon in a glass of water
after a particularly spicy meal to counteract acid indigestion. 
Sodium bicarb is NaCo3, I believe.  No volatility in water whatsoever.

In the process of sugar extraction from beetroot , we first reach to
"red sugar".After whitening process,"white sugar" produced.
Some people say, white sugar is better than "red sugar" from point of
view of health.

Could perhaps something have been lost in the translation. I would
assume that a Yugoslavian recipe would have started in Yugoslavian (or
whatever language was used in Yugoslavia).

Terms like "red sugar" "1 tsp salt" and "1 tsp sodium" are English,
and are probably translations.

sparky4ca-ga

BRITANIC COLUMBIA CAKE
Apple 700 Gr.           Salt  1 Teaspoon
Vegetarian oil 250 ml.  Sodium 1 Teaspoon
Sugar 300Gr.            Vanilla 1/2 Teaspoon
Eggs  3 eggs            Nuts (Cracking) 100 Gr
Flour 330 Gr.           Cinnamon 1 Teaspoon
PREPARATION OF SYRUP
Butter  120 Gr
RED SUGAR 150 Gr.
Milk  60 Ml         Can this recipe be translated to American measurments:):)

http://www.geocities.com/sagoimex/sugar1.html