Monday, February 14, 2011

Natural Red Velvet Cake

All Natural Red Velvet Cake
I'm not a very good cake icer.
Valentine's Day can present a challenge to those sensitive to food coloring (Red #40 is everywhere), but I look at it as an opportunity to try something new! This year, I decided to try to make a natural Red Velvet cake for Valentine's Day.

So what can you use (other than a bottle of red food coloring) to get that bright red color?  Beets!  God certainly didn't put them on earth for us to eat!  Ha ha!  No offense to those who like beets--I'm just kidding!  (not really.*)

And don't worry, you can't taste the beets at all after you add butter and sugar!

I usually color my red things with beet juice, but while googling, I discovered that beet juice in baked goods often fades (a problem with natural colors) and turns brownish.  Brown red velvet cake is not what I'm looking for.

Most of the natural recipes online had a lot of chocolate, so the red coloring is subtle, but I found one recipe for a very red Red Velvet cake using beet-root powder.  I've never used beet powder before, but I bought a bottle at the health food store**, and I am really pleased with the result!

My kids were so surprised by the red cake, they hesitated.  "Can we eat this," they all asked.  :-)  Yes!

Final verdict:  This was an unusual cake, with 6 eggs and only 3/4 cup flour.  It was very moist, but I'm going to try a white cake with the beet powder added. Then, I'm going to try a cake using beet juice to see how that compares.  I'm sure my kids will be disappointed at how much cake I'm making them eat.

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* I'm joking. I really am.

** I just about fell over when I saw how much the beet root powder was.  I almost didn't buy it, but my husband convinced me it would be worth it when the kids saw the RED cake.

3 comments:

  1. You should have said "No, of course not" when the kids said "Can we eat this?"

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  2. A wonderful, awful idea! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!

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  3. I like beets. But maybe not in a cake.

    This is a cool idea. Let us all know if you revisit this recipe.

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