delishytown:

Beet Velvet Cupcakes

In honor of St. Valentine’s Day, I decided to try an experiment: Make the perfect Red Velvet cupcake using beets instead of the 2 bottles of red food coloring most recipes call for.

I searched recipes and found out that it’s tricky to get them really red when you use beets. This part confused me a bit because I cook with beets often, and they’re really red, staining my hands and kitchen towels. But when you cook them into a cupcake with leavening agents, there’s something about the alkalinity of baking powder & baking soda, along with high heat, that turns the cake brown when it cooks. In order to make the beet cake very red, you need to add lemon juice to the batter. Adding lemon juice increases the acidity. That’s it. Thank you Science. It worked, mine came out very red. And delicious. They were sweet and slightly chocolatey, and only had the faintest beet taste. Since this recipe is eggless, the cupcake part is vegan. 

Here’s how to make these:

Preheat your oven to 350, line 12 cupcake tins with paper bake cups.

You can use a large can of canned beets for this recipe, I used 3 large fresh organic beets, washed, peeled, then roasted them at 350 for 45 minutes, covered with foil. Once cooled, puree in a food processor. Add 1/3 Cup Canola Oil, 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice, 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract and pulse briefly.

Sift together: 1 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour, 1 Cup Granulated Sugar, 3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder (Do not use Dutch processed for this recipe), 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder, 1/4 Teaspoon Salt, 

Pour the beet mixture into dry ingredients, mix just until combined.  Spoon the batter into the cupcake cups, bake for 18 – 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. (This 18 - 22 time was from the vegan recipe I found, it took about 40 minutes at 350 until the toothpick came out clean.)

The cream cheese frosting (not vegan) came out beyond delectable. I found the recipe in the Joy Of Cooking and adapted it: 2 tblsp butter, 1/2 package of cream cheese, a tblsp or so of milk, dash of vanilla extract, and 3/4 cup powdered sugar. My frosting came out slightly lumpy because I mixed it by hand. Use a mixer if you dislike lumps in your frosting.

Yummy!!