Eggless Red Velvet Muffins with no artificial color but made with beetroot puree. These cupcakes are delicious and the recipe is fail proof. Holiday recipes!
"These Cupcakes have beets in them??", "Did you really add beetroot in this cake?? ", "I cannot taste beets in this at all, thankfully!", "I cannot believe that this is a beetroot cupcake!" were just some of the things I heard when I served these cupcakes at the Christmas party.
All I could do was smile through all of it and nod in a yes! I myself was surprised that I had created a dessert using a vegetable.
In fact, the last few days I have been challenging myself to create more and more such recipes that redefine cooking for me.
I have been wanting to defy the norm by breaking the mold and come up with interesting combos when it comes to food.
I got this inspirational idea from my favorite cooking series - Masterchef. Ever since I have been wanting to play with this idea and experiment with my palate.
Just the other day, I made Beetroot Raspberry Sauce serve along with Instant Rabri for dessert and Mango Kadhi for the main course.
This is something new for me and I am super excited to have set my foot onto this less-traveled path. I hope to come up with more such recipes in the future for all of you.
Fruits being used in savory food and veggies being used in desserts is my new year's resolution.
Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes was KR's demand from me for this Christmas. He told me well in advance that this is what he wanted to eat during the holidays and that I should not give him any excuses for not making it.
He also told me to not tweak the original recipe and make red velvet cupcakes as is. Well, I made no such promise to him on that one. 😉
My devil mind (like he calls it) was already running over ideas on how to make these red velvet cupcakes different. While I am not a dessert person, red velvet cake is one of my favorite apart from cheesecake.
Hence I was looking forward to creating them in my kitchen and much as KR was looking forward to eating them.
The basic recipe calls for red food color. All this time I thought that there was a special ingredient which makes the cake red velvet.
Only after going through a couple of recipes, I realized that it is just a regular cupcake recipe with red food color in it.
I have used beets in savory dishes in the past to give the dish its deep red/pink color and that is how I got this idea to try using beets puree in making my cupcakes as well.
I was surprised to find a couple of recipes online which had used beets as well. I referred to a couple of them and tried to create my own version with some changes.
Here's how to make it
Take a mixing bowl, sieve all-purpose flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder. Add salt and sugar, whisk it all together.
In a separate bowl, add all the wet ingredients like oil, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Whisk it. Peel and boil the beetroot and once it cools down, chop and blitz it to make a smooth puree.
You may sieve this puree if required.
Add this puree to the wet ingredients bowl. Whisk it together. Add this to the dry ingredients bowl. Fold in the mixture to form a cake batter consistency.
Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners. With a spoon, fill the liners ¾. Lightly tap the muffin tray to ensure there are no gaps.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake these cupcakes for 30-35 minutes. Once done, take it out from the oven and let it cool for 5-10 minutes.
Serving Suggestions
Serve with any frosting on top or as is. This cupcake has a slight tang to it due to the lemon juice and I swear, you cannot taste the beets at all in it.
It just gives these cupcakes a deep red color which I love BTW. The cupcake is soft, moist, and airy.
I had made around 80 cupcakes for the Christmas party and let me tell you that I came home empty-handed. They were all devoured.
I was super content and happy with this. It is always endearing to see people enjoy your food which you have prepared with a lot of love and passion.
These delicious cupcakes can also be made for Valentine's day, Christmas eve, birthday parties, or on any other happy and festive occasion.
Personally, I do not like any frosting on top of my cake/cupcake but KR loves it. I did use the ready vanilla frosting available in stores for the ones I served to the kids and to KR. 🙂
They all seemed to enjoy this combo and were happy to be relishing this cupcake in its full glory! 🙂
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Recipe 📖
Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes with Beets
Equipment
- Muffin tray
- Oven
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ Gluten-free all purpose flour
- 1 ¼ cup fine sugar
- 2 tablespoon Cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ cup freshly pureed beetroot
- ⅓ cup cooking oil
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Cupcake liners as required
Instructions
- Peel and roughly cut the cooked beets
- Transfer to a blender and blend to make a smooth puree. No need to add water while grinding. You may sieve this puree if required.
- Take a mixing bowl, sieve all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Then add cocoa powder.
- Also add the powdered sugar.
- Whisk it all together.
- In a separate bowl, add all the wet ingredients like oil, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Whisk it.
- Add this to the dry ingredients bowl.
- Add this puree to the bowl. Whisk it together.
- Fold in the mixture to form a cake batter consistency.
- Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners.
- With a spoon, fill the liners ¾. Lightly tap the muffin tray to ensure there are no gaps. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake these cupcakes for 30-35 minutes. Once done, take if out from the oven and let it cool for 5-10 minutes.
- Serve with any frosting on top or as is.
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Sally says
How much beetroot do you need to cook for 3/4 cup purée ?
Priya says
Depending on the size of the beets - 1-2.
Sunu says
Want to try out your recipe for my grandkids. But have beetroot powder, so can I use it instead? If so then how much to use?
Priya says
I have not tried it with beetroot powder. But if you do try, add 2 tablespoons and increase the oil to 1/2 cup and try it out.
Lynn Morgan says
Can you use canned beets and if so, how much?
Priya says
Hi, sure you can. Puree it and use 3/4 cup. Hope this helps.
Siddhi Sankhe says
Hey how many cupcakes are made from this recipe??
Priya says
12-15 muffins
Gabrielle says
These were not red, but brown from the cocoa powder.
Priya says
oh, sorry about that. I wonder why that happened. I have so many people who have tried this recipe and shared a pic with me..its all turned out red.
Hina says
It was good but it has lot of taste of beet root.. not exactly turned out as red velvet cake
Priya says
Oh really? I served it at a party which had kids as well and this was a hit! The taste of beets was not so overpowering.
Mansi says
Mine did not turn out red..they were brown 🙁 like chocolate cupcakes..what could be the reason?
Priya says
That is strange..the cake batter itself should be red in color..was it?