I saw an ugly beetroot and couldn’t resist the urge to transform it to something beautiful. That’s where the journey began! I brought the ugly beet home and butchered it. Inside, it wasn’t as ugly as from the outside. The vibrant magenta-red actually looked pretty good.
With the red velvet craze that’s going on these days, I have been thinking of baking one for a while but with a natural dye and minus the cocoa factor (hubby and I are not big fan of chocolate, can you believe that?). I am not too enthusiast about using spoons full of potentially dangerous food color for the sake of having a red cake. Though I didn’t think I was going to turn the ugly beet to a cake like item, it surely opened up the door to give the red cake try. Instead of baking a cake, I opted for cupcakes.
When I served the cupcakes, the first reaction was disbelief. It has a moist and light texture and doesn’t taste like beet at all!
Few important points to achieve the vibrant color for these cupcakes I must mention. Beet tends to go brown when baked for longer periods of time. After doing some research, I’ve discovered that beet retains the luscious red in an acidic environment. A bit of lemon juice does the trick. Vinegar would work too, but I prefer freshly squeezed, good old lemon juice.
Oh, yes, I don’t like frosting either so I didn’t add any. If you cannot have cupcakes without filling, feel free to add buttercream frosting(or any other of your liking), should be a fail proof combination. These are one of those cupcakes that go well without frosting too.
Looks can be deceiving. Though I had hard time falling in love at the first sight, I do see the beauty of the ugly beet and I can definitely incorporate more into my cooking. I think I am actually loving the potential beet has. Stay tuned for more beet recipes in the future.
- 1 large beet (1 cup puree)
- 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup oil
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Steps to cook beets:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Wash and chop beets.
- Place in a baking tray and wrap with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
- Roast until soft. About an hour.
- Cool, add lemon juice and make a silky, smooth puree in blender.
- Measure 1 cup of the beet puree and set aside.
- Steps to make cake:
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line or oil/butter a cupcake tray.
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Cream together oil and sugar.
- Add eggs, one at a time.
- Add vanilla.
- Slowly add flour mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Add milk.
- Fold 1 cup beet puree into the cake batter.
- Pour batter into prepared cupcake tray.
- Bake 20 minutes or until a skew comes out clean when inserted in the center of a cupcake.
To achieve the best color, make the beet puree as smooth as possible.
I used brown sugar because I had some handy. Regular sugar should work as well.
interesting recipe indeed! thanks for sharing this with the Bakefest event!:)
Thanks Mansi. I haven’t had beet for almost 15 years so thought of trying something new. I have few more very interesting one coming up in the next few weeks.
This ‘ugly beet’ cupcakes sounds delicious, can’t wait to try it on my 8 yr old! One queston, does it matter what type of oil used? I usually keep on hand canola or olive oil.
Hi Lisa. I’ve used canola and olive oil both on cakes and cupcakes with not much difference so either should be fine. I hope your daughter enjoys the cupcakes.
Hi Lisa – Just wanted to follow up again to find out how your daughter enjoyed the cupcakes. Thanks.
Do you think I could use avocado oil or coconut oil?
I have not personally used these two oils on this recipe. You may give it a try but the recipe may need adjustment or may not yield the same result. Thank you for stopping by. Hope to see you around again. If you do try the recipe with avocado oil or coconut oil, do let me know how the cupcakes turn out for you.
I made these yesterday, but they turned out pink instead of red. I used canned beets, do you think that affected the color?
Thank you so much for trying out the recipe. I’ve made the Red velvet cupcakes using fresh beets several times and they’ve always turned red. I’m thinking the canned beets affected the color.
How many cupcakes does this recipe make? Can i substitute with GF flour?
Hi Rachael – Thank you for stopping by. I’ve never used GF flour, but can’t think why you cant’s try using it 🙂
I usually get about 10-12 cupcakes depending on the cupcake tin size I’m using. Hope this helps.