Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes Without Food Dye

Name: Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes Without Food Dye
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 h 30 min
Yield: 24
Cuisine: Dessert
Ingredients: 2 cups pureed beets (4-8 medium-large beets)* or 1 drained can of beets +1/4 applesauce**; 1/2 cup butter or non-dairy substitute, room temperature (e.g. Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks); 1 1/4 cup granulated cane sugar; 3 eggs; 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract; 1 1/2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar; 1 1/4 cup milk, dairy or non-dairy vanilla milk; 2 cups gfJules All Purpose Gluten Free Flour; 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa; 2 tsp. baking powder; 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda; 1 tsp. ground cinnamon; 1/2 cup shortening (Spectrum® Palm Oil Shortening or Nutiva® Coconut Oil Shortening); 1- 8oz container cream cheese, dairy or non-dairy (e.g. Follow Your Heart® Vegan Gourmet soy cream cheese); 3 cups confectioner’s or powdered sugar; 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (omit if you want bright white frosting); 1 1/2 tsp. lemon rind (optional); 1-2 Tbs. extra beet purée (optional for a pink hue in the frosting)

Jump to Recipe

Red Velvet is sacred southern fare, and I’m a southern girl, so this recipe was high on my “make-gluten free now” list! However, in my research to devise a delicious gluten free red velvet cupcakes recipe, I was disappointed to learn that there is actually little mystique around making red velvet.

In fact, red velvet cakes are just chocolate or Devil’s Food cakes with lots of artificial red food coloring and gobs of white or cream cheese frosting (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

As anticlimactic as that may be, I was intrigued by this tidbit I unearthed: during World War II food rationing, boiled beets were used to enhance the red color of these cakes. Now that is interesting!

Let me take a moment to mention (at the risk of offending some) that I don’t particularly love for beets. I appreciate their health benefits, but don’t gravitate toward them as a side dish, if you know what I mean.

I don’t want to count myself among those who have maligned the beet through the centuries though. As one of my favorite dog-eared books, Cupboard Love: A Dictionary of Culinary Curiosities, describes in the history of this under-appreciated root-vegetable:

[B]eets were planted every spring and harvested every fall; they were eaten regularly by every person in England; their tops and leaves were fed to thousands of hungry pigs; and yet it appears that not once did the beet inspire anyone who possessed pen, paper, and the ability to write, to jot down its name, even in passing.

So I decided to take another look at the somewhat unorthodox (to me, at least) idea of using beets as natural food dye in a cake recipe. It does seem like a far less artificial way to get that beautiful red tint in a cake (food dyes never have thrilled me), and I really couldn’t knock it until I gave it a fair shot, so I decided to craft my Gluten Free Red Velvet without food dyes, opting for beets instead.

Upon taking this fork in my recipe road, I recognized that my cakes would be more dense and moist than a traditional layer cake. This type of recipe always performs better when baked in smaller sizes, like cupcakes (the same way quick breads heavy on the fruit, or using applesauce in place of some of the fats, often work better as muffins).

If you are set on making a layer cake with your Red Velvet instead, I’d suggest using a lighter chocolate cake and simply adding 1-2 ounces of red food coloring (see my crowd-pleasing Best Gluten Free Cake Recipe with Chocolate Option and choose a light colored cocoa).

A reader also alerted me that she used my award-winning gfJules Gluten Free All Purpose Flour in this regular Red Velvet Layer Cake recipe and it turned out great (she used red food coloring though).

You’ll be proud of your results, and you can still avoid chemical food dyes if you like, by using a beet-based food coloring like the ones from India Tree, Color Kitchen or Watkins. All natural, these require a good bit more colorant added to your recipe to get a red hue, so be aware you may need to reduce other liquids in your cake recipe by the same amount, if using the whole bottle of color.

Also, the darker the cocoa used, the less likely you’ll notice much of a red color to your cake, but for me, it’s all about the delicious cocoa, so I choose rich cocoa instead of rich red color.

And I have one more option for you: make your own natural food colorings to use in all your baking! Here’s a great article and recipe for how to make pink, yellow, purple and green food colorings from fruit, vegetables and spices!

If you are up to trying the historic approach to Red Velvet though, join me in making these amazingly decadent — yet healthy — Real Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes! The beets offer extra Potassium, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus and Copper; and among other vitamins they are high in both vitamin C and Folate.

Beets also don’t impart any flavor that isn’t smothered by chocolate, so feel good feeding these gorgeous and delicious berry-colored treasures to your family with love this Valentine’s Day, or on any yummy occasion!

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes

Gluten Free Red Velvet Cupcakes Without Food Dye

Yield: 24 cupcakes

Prep Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Rich, chocolatey Gluten Free Red Velvet cupcakes ... without food dye! If it's possible to make red velvet any better, this is it!

Ingredients

2 cups pureed beets (4-8 medium-large beets)* or 1 drained can of beets +1/4 applesauce**
1/2 cup butter or non-dairy substitute, room temperature (e.g. Earth Balance® Buttery Sticks)
1 1/4 cup granulated cane sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cup milk, dairy or non-dairy vanilla milk
2 cups gfJules All Purpose Gluten Free Flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup shortening (Spectrum® Palm Oil Shortening or Nutiva® Coconut Oil Shortening)
1- 8oz container cream cheese, dairy or non-dairy (e.g. Follow Your Heart® Vegan Gourmet soy cream cheese)
3 cups confectioner’s or powdered sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (omit if you want bright white frosting)
1 1/2 tsp. lemon rind (optional)
1-2 Tbs. extra beet purée (optional for a pink hue in the frosting)

Instructions

Real Red Velvet Cupcakes

Wash beets and remove greens. Boil until fork-tender, approximately 40 minutes for medium-large size beets. Drain and allow to cool. Peel skins off (they will come off easily once boiled) and purée in a food processor or mash until smooth.

Measure purée to equal 2 cups (total beets + applesauce should be 2 cups, so if you have less purée, simply make up the difference with applesauce).

Preheat oven to 350 F (static) or 325 F (convection).

Cream butter and sugar until light. Add eggs, vanilla, cider vinegar, applesauce and cooled beet purée. Whisk together dry ingredients, then add to wet mixture, slowly pouring milk in, while mixing. Beat until smooth.

Spoon batter into lined or oiled muffin tins, filling 3/4 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out nearly clean or with dry crumbs.

Makes approximately 24 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Bring cream cheese and shortening/coconut oil to room temperature, then cream together with remaining ingredients. If the frosting is not stiff enough, add more powdered sugar until the proper consistency is achieved.

Non-dairy cream cheese products sometimes require more confectioner’s sugar or less liquid to achieve the proper frosting consistency.

Add a tablespoon or two of extra puréed beets (or food coloring) if you’d like a pink hue to your frosting.

Notes

I added 2 drops of food coloring to the frosting bag as I piped this frosting out onto the cupcakes.

(For extra fun, use the water from boiling the beets for tie-dye! A couple of pointers: use natural fabrics like wool or silk for best results, since fabrics like cotton will resist the dye and the colors will fade quickly; to help set the color, use a mordant. While the beet juice is a brilliant purple-red color, it will set in the fabric with a lighter brown hue and will not last without mordant).