Q: I've been looking for a recipe to make red velvet cake or cupcakes using beets instead of red food coloring. I had tried an organic food coloring derived from beets, but it turned purple after baking. I'm guessing the color reacted to the chemical leavener.
Have you come across a recipe, or way to adapt a recipe, to do this?
Sent by Stacy
Editor: Oh, the great dilemma of the natural baking world! A quick recap: The scarlet red velvet cake that is currently so popular gets its color from not one but two bottles of red food coloring. (Old-fashioned red velvet cake is not nearly so red; it has an earthy reddish tone from the light touch of cocoa interacting with the leavener.)
But if you like to avoid red dye in your food, then this color is much harder to come by. We've tried shredded beets and pomegranate juice, but with no luck. The problem is that yes, the natural colors are turned brown by the chemical reaction with the leaveners.
The answer is to make cake without baking soda or baking powder. I actually was going to present you with an angel food or pound cake cupcake today, dyed bright red with beet powder. The only problem is that I really was not a fan of the strong taste of beet powder in both batches of my cupcakes. You can get pretty great color, though, by adding beet powder to a cake recipe without baking soda or baking powder.
This is what Stephanie Jolly did over at Suite 101 — here's her recipe (pictured above) for red velvet cake sans dye. It does use beet powder; I just didn't care for the taste. But try it and see what you think!
• Naturally Colored Red Velvet Cake at Suite 101
Readers, any thoughts? Have you tried the recipe above?
Related: Recipe: Velvety Beet and Cocoa Cake
(Image: Stephanie Jolly)
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
I was just about to make a chocolate beet cake that was highly recommended by a friend. I'm curious, do the cooked beets give a bad flavor, too, or just the powder?
I'd love for you to find the key to a dye-less red velvet...I'm sure it is just a boogie-man for me, but I can't stand pouring 2 bottles of red dye into a cake.
Well, if you use a natural (i.e., not Dutch processed) cocoa and buttermilk, your cake will turn a reddish mahogany colour.
I avoid artificial additives in food (never buy processed foods, etc.), but even I use red food colouring in my red velvet cake. I make it once a year for my daughter Tallulah's birthday (because no other sort of cake seems as appropriate for a girl named Tallulah). Make it right, with White Lily Flour and natural cocoa, and enjoy it!
I've made it several times with beets using this recipe from Vanilla Garlic- mine have been red and lovely!
http://www.vanillagarlic.com/2008/01/beet-cupcakes-with-chocolate-ganache.html
I've been looking for this too. This is a delicious beet cake recipe (tastes a bit like carrot cake) but it is not pink or red.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Beetnik-Cake/Detail.aspx
What you want to do is make a more acidic environment in the cake. @mschatelaine hits it on the head with the natural cocoa + buttermilk. You might also consider adding a little white vinegar or cream of tartar to drop the pH from your leaveners.
Then a little shredded beet should be enough to boost the reddish color closer to the "traditional" (ie: not traditional at all, but what people have come to expect in the last 20-30 years) bright red cake.
My grandmother always used beets to color her red velvet cake. It wasn't as intensely red as modern ones that are made with food coloring - it was more of a burgundy. But then, when I think of red velvet fabric, I think of something more burgundy and luscious anyway, rather than bright red. :)
Unfortunately, I don't have her recipe, but from what I remember of it, I agree with the above comments about the buttermilk as a key component here.
I don't know if it was traditional/standard or not, but I believe she also used significantly more cocoa in her cake than I see in any modern recipes. Anyone else??
@themeaningofpie: I think you should go ahead and try the recipe. Chocolate cakes with cooked beet in them are often extremely moist and delicious! I have a recipe that uses a ton of beets and no one guesses that there's beets in it.
Cook's Illustrated tried to make a red velvet cake with reduced or without food coloring - they were unsuccessful. They have some pics with their recipe, and more information about the process in their special Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking 2010 issue (available for Kindle).
I'm genuinely wondering, what's the hype with red velvet cake? I hear about it all over the blogosphere and from what i understand it's just a regular chocolate cake with red dye? What's so special about it except for the (sometimes) fake colour?
i haven't tried this but it looks promising:
http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/seeing-red/
Christine M.: it is a delicious, tender, chocolate cake made with buttermilk. The colour is a stunning -- some would say shocking -- surprise. It is a chocolate cake like no other though. The secret is in the White Lily flour; only White Lily will yield the right crumb.
@Janelle, if you use significantly more cocoa than the recipe calls for, your cake will be darker and browner, not redder. And like I mentioned before, true Red Velvet cake uses natural (not Dutch-processed) cocoa, which will react to the acids in the recipe (traditional red velvet cake recipes contain vinegar to react with the cocoa) and turn reddish.
Sorry, but by adding beats to the recipe, you are creating a chocolate-beet cake, and it is no longer a red velvet cake. It may be red(dish) and chocolate, but it doesn't have the crumb and texture and lightness (!) which defines a red velvet cake.
(I am rather passionate about red velvet cake since it is my daughter's birthday cake, and I have literally tried dozens of recipes and variations to find the perfect one)
Does the naturally colored cake turn brown if you use aluminum-free baking powder? I know aluminum was the culprit for turning my carrot bread a nasty looking green. I was wondering if there is a similar reaction at work here.
A really GOOD red velvet cake is darker. The bright bright red ones you find in the stores are generally from a package with extra coloring and less cocoa.
Listen to mschatelaine. She knows!
@mschatelaine
It's a shame then cos I don't think that flour is available at the grocers in Ottawa.
yumm i love red velvet cake made with beets. It makes the cake super moist. Search Waldorf Astoria Red Velvet Beet Cake to find some recipes. The 1st time i made it with beets I think I added a little to much because it had more of an earthy beet flavor. I cut the amount of beets back a little the 2nd time and it was much better.
@Christine -- *I* am from Ottawa. If *I* can get White Lily Flour, yo can you!!!
I order it bulk online (from the Smuckers site), have it shipped to the UPS store in Ogdensburg. It's a half hour drive from where we live in Ottawa. You don't pay duties or taxes on food.
Red Velvet cake is worth the effort.
(even though since the new owners closed the Memphis mill, White Lily is not what it once was, it is still the best for Red Velvet Cake.)
@ mschatelaine My mistake for assuming you lived in the US *g*
I'm actually in Hull but it's good to know I can get my hands on White Lily Flour somehow. :)
Mama Pea has an awesome recipe for this! http://peasandthankyou.com/2011/02/14/now-thats-love/
So does anyone have a good old fashioned recipe without beets or copious amounts of colouring? :)
@pikku.sukka - The recipe only dates to the 1950's. The "good old fashioned recipe" *has* copious amounts of coloring. It was the 50's. The government told us to "duck and cover" in case of nuclear attack. They didn't tell us that there was anything wrong with teflon, bpa, or food coloring.
@pikku.sukka -- look for a traditional RVC recipe which uses buttermilk, vinegar, butter and White Lily flour (trust me on the flour! It is key to use this flour).
Now, an interesting experiment would be to try to make the cake with natural cocoa (unalkalized) to see how red your cake is -- it will most likely be a reddish brown -- and get your hands on Gerkens 10/12 Garnet Cocoa Powder, and see how red that goes.
Gerkens 10/12 Garnet Cocoa Powder is actually heavily alkalized, and so won't react as much with the acids (but the buttermilk is important for the tenderness of the cake, so don't skip it), but it is a cocoa powder that starts out red, and so will likely give you a redder (albeit a dark red, and not a bright red) cake. Worth trying instead of beats anyway! (because the beats may give you the "Red" in Red Velvet, but they won't give you the "Velvet" texture).
http://www.wilburchocolate.com/docs/applications/product_listings/cocoa_powder.html
beets (I'm not a morning person)
I'll be trying it myself as soon as I can get my hands on the cocoa and more White Lily flour...
Oh -- and has anyone tried the "natural" food colors made by either Seelecta or India Tree when making red velvet cake? Each makes a red (or two) which could possibly work in red velvet cake, and so just wonder whether they are flavour-free and made a good shade of of red...
(p.s. last night, by pure chance, I had red velvet cake at a friend's house for dessert... it was the.worst.rvc.ever -- made with the Duncan Hines mix. All I tasted were bitter chemicals...)
I love this recipe for a Red Velvet Cake using beets. It's yummy!
http://urbanrecipe.com/2010/07/chocolate-red-devil-beet-cake/
Oh pooh on the comment we must use White Lily flour if we want to make a great red velvet cake. Sheer nonesense. Softasilk cake flour (my usual) works great, Robin Hood Cake & pastry flour works great & Swans down cake flour ( now harder to find) has worked great.
No one specific flour makes a perfect RV cake, or any other cake. Its the baker using the flour that will or will not, make it perfect.
the reason i dont use red dyes is because its made from the nicknamed "CARMINE BUG" (Cochineal extract and carmine, used to dye food, drinks and cosmetics various shades of red, orange, pink and purple, are extracted from the dried bodies of the female cochineal bug.
The F.D.A. typically doesn’t require color additives to be named on food labels. For years, the bug extracts “have been hidden under the terms ‘artificial colors’ or ‘color added,’ ” according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The group says the extracts are commonly used in reddish-colored foods and beverages, including fruit drinks, ice creams, yogurts and candies. ) this is why i want to eat more natural foods.thank u i will try this receipe
I know it's been awhile since anyone commented on this post, but I'd love to share my mom's recipe for Red Velvet Cheesecake. She used a combination of beetroot juice and red food colouring.
i know this comment is way late, but check this out!!!!!
http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/seeing-red/
SO red and beautiful...seems that the trick is to keep pH low!