Red Velvet minus Red #40

Now that its getting colder, my oven is warming my house and this chocolaty cake is warming my heart. I've been wanting to make a red velvet cake free of artificial colors for a very long time. Fresh beets are readily available at the farmer's market so let's seize this opportunity to make some deliciously moist and flavorful red velvet! I adapted this recipe from Fine Cooking November 2001 but I modified the recipe so you won't get the high and low affect from consuming simple carbs (like sugar and refined white flour) by making this whole wheat.

As you can see, I didn't make the traditional red velvet since I made a bright pink cream cheese frosting to complement the cake. I also didn't artificially colored the cake and frosting bright red. Instead, I made a rich dark red cake. You can obtain a brighter red color if you use 1/4 cup more buttermilk. I made this a second time but added more buttermilk and it lighten the color of the cake and made the red more visible. Adding more buttermilk to the batter did make it more difficult to handle when eating because it made the cake more moist. However, it was quite delicious so my friends and I didn't mind getting a bit messy.

A few great things about this Red Velvet cake:

• FREE of preservatives and artificial colors!
• Why do I care about feeding friends (especially children) food free of artificial colors?  It's because "Research has shown this rainbow of additives can cause behavioral problems as well as cancer, birth defects and other health problems in laboratory animals. Red 40 and yellow 6 are also suspected of causing an allergy-like hypersensitivity reaction in children."  You and read more about it here. 

• 100% whole wheat
• Whole Wheat nourishes your body and help prevent your blood glucose level from spiking up high and low super fast. 

• Super moist and tasty without any muddy beet flavor!

Taste & Texture: 

This cake is super moist from the beets. It is chocolatey and lightly sweet without any beet and muddy taste.

Ingredients for one 8" layer cake

• 2 medium beets (for 3/4 cup of roasted grated beets)
• 2 cups (8.5 oz) whole wheat flour (finely ground or pastry)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 6 ounces (3/4 cup) room temperature unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar 
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or 1 1/4 cup milk + 4 1/2 tsp lemon juice)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Rack should be in the center and upper third of the oven.
2. Trim leaves off beets but leave 1/2" of stem. Wash beets thoroughly under running water. 
3. Place beets in foil. Drizzle it with a bit of vegetable oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt over it. Seal the foil and place it on a baking sheet to roast beets in the oven for about an hour. Beets should be tender when pierced with a knife. To check on the beets, remove beets from oven, open the foil carefully since it'll be super hot. Pierce beet with a knife. If knife easily slides easily into the beet, it is done. Allow the beet to cool before peeling the beets with a paring knife. The skin will come off easily but your hands will be stained pink!
4. With a box grater, grate the peeled beets on the finest grating plane. Measure 3/4 cup of grated beets for the cake, and measure 2 tablespoons of grated beets for the frosting. Set grated beets aside. 
5. Reduce oven temperature to 350F.  Prepare cake or muffin pans. Line muffin pans with liner or grease two 8" round baking pans with butter, then trace parchment paper to size of the cake pan to place it in the cake pan. Butter the parchment paper and dust it with flour. Set pans aside. I know this is a lot of work but your cakes will come out of the pan easily and beautifully.
6. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.
7. In a separate bowl with a electric stand mixer or hand held mixer, cream butter and sugar together until it is light and fluffy at medium speed for about 3 minutes. If you are using cold butter, it'll take a bit longer. Add one egg at a time to the butter-sugar mixture. Once eggs are incorporated, add the beets and vanilla extract and combine the mixture thoroughly. 
8. Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Slowly mix the ingredients together while adding the buttermilk. Once the ingredients are just incorporated, add the remaining dry ingredients. Beat the mixture on medium speed until the ingredients are just incorporated. Try not to overmix or the cake will be tough and flat. With a spatula, scrapes down the sides and fold the batter to finish incorporating the ingredients together. The batter will be thick. 
9. Divide the batter between the two prepared cake pans or lined muffin pans. Batter will be thick so use a spatula to help pour the batter into the pans. 
10. Bake for 20 minutes (for muffin pan), 23 to 25 minutes (for a 9-inch pan) or 30-32 minutes (for an 8-inch pan).  Cake is done when a skewer/toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  
11. Remove cakes from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Invert cakes onto a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating the cake. 

To make the Frosting

For this frosting, I actually don't know the recipe. I made a batch of this really yummy and dairy-free vanilla frosting a few months ago for another cake. I had about 1 cup of frosting leftover and since I wasn't going to let some good-o frosting go to waste, I froze it in the freezer.

My vanilla frosting has a great refreshing and tangy flavor because it contains fresh lemon juice. I realized that the tangy flavor would complement the red velvet since cream cheese has a tangy flavor. So I pulled the frozen frosting out of the freezer and defrost it. To make it a bit more fun and attractive for young kids, I simply took about a tablespoon of roasted grated beets for this wonderful bright color.

I'll come up with my dairy-free vanilla frosting recipe and share it with you once I remake it. Since I made the frosting by tasting it...I didn't write it down. So sorry! I totally regret it now. But thats how I experiment and make delicious food. In the mean time, I included the frosting recipe from Fine Cooking below.

Fine Cooking's Pink Frosting Recipe

1. Beat the cream cheese until smooth and creamy with an electric beater. Add the butter and beat until smooth and blended into the cream cheese. Scrape down the bowl as necessary. 
2. Add the beets and beat until combined. 
3. Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract, milk, lemon juice, and salt.
4. On medium speed, beat the ingredients together until its smooth and silky.
5. Fridge frosting for 30 minutes before frosting it on cooled cakes. 

To assemble the cake

1. Place one layer of cake on a cake stand and top it with a generous dollop of pink frosting. 
2. Spread frosting evenly with a knife/cake-spreader then place second cake on top of the frosting. 
3. Frost the top of the cake and the sides. To prevent crumbs from being apart of the frosting, first frost the cake with a thin layer of frosting then fridge it for about 5-10 minutes before frosting the cake a second time with a thicker layer.
4. Fridge the cake a least an hour will make the cake easier to slice. Cake will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 day if its well wrapped.