Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes

I was so excited when we got beets a few weeks ago because I've been wondering if shredded beets could be used as a coloring agent to make red velvet cupcakes. Since I didn't need a "fancy" dessert right away, I shredded the beets and then froze them. Well, I have a party to go to today, so I took out the beets last night to defrost, along with some butter and cream cheese to soften.

Once the cupcakes were cooked, they had a nice reddish tinge to them, which hinted at a possibly glorious red interior, but when I bit into one, it was just kind of brown. :-(

Still, they tasted good, and for people who don't really like beets, this is the perfect disguise for them.

I'm wondering if I perhaps used too much cocoa or too many beets, even. In hindsight, I probably should have also used white sugar. When I get some more beets, I will try this again with some tweaking and get bake to you. In the meantime, these will certainly pass for the "real thing." Especially from the outside!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup hot water

2 tsp vanilla

2 tbsp oil

1 1/2 cups shredded beets

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

Icing:

1 cup unsalted butter

1 cup cream cheese

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

Add the eggs and mix on high speed until fully incorporated.

Mix the cocoa powder into hot water and stir until the cocoa has completely dissolved.

Add the cocoa mixture, vanilla, oil and beets to the egg mixture and combine.

Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder together and add to the wet ingredients. Stir just until ingredients are fully combined.

Line a muffin tin with paper cups. Fill the cups with batter, allowing about a 1/3 inch at the top for the cupcakes to grow.

Bake ate 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before frosting or the frosting will melt.

For the icing, add all of the ingredients into a large bowl and whip at high speed until fluffy.

Ideally, you would use a pastry bag and an icing tip to put the icing on the cupcakes, but I don't own either of those things. I just cut the corner of a 1 gallon freezer bag and used that.

Stay tuned! If I figure out a way to make these cupcakes actually red, I will update this post!

Bon Apetit!