Beetroot Velvet Cup cake

Being a mother, feeding my son veggies is always my top priority, My lill one loves cup cakes & that too if its chocolate. I made some Beetroot velvet cup cakes for him yesterday & he loved it. I also iced some of these with Cream cheese frosting & they tasted out of this world! My lil one doesn't like icing & he loves to eat them just plain. My hubby & myself couldn't stop licking the icing. I topped these cup cakes with Strawberry to make it look beautiful. The Strawberries & this cream cheese frosting is like match made in heaven. I would have eaten more than 5 Strawberries dipping in the frosting in a minute (lol). This Cream cheese frosting is different compared to the regular cream cheese frosting & a must try.

There is so much craze these days for colored cakes & the Red Velvet cake is the most wanted ones. When it comes to coloring the cakes or icing I feel not so good. But these colored cakes are consumed once in a while, hence its fine if you are having occasionally. We all know that anything artificial is not good for our body. The velvet cake is not about the color but its about the texture of the cake, You can make velvet cakes even without any color. The magic for making cakes velvety, is the  combination of baking soda & sour ingredient, In this recipe its sour cream. There are recipes that use vinegar as well, but I love the flavor of sour cream & hence use it.

Makes: 15 cup cakes
Bake time: 25 mins
Making time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups cake flour
• 1.2 cup sugar  (powdered)
• 1 stick Butter (115 gms/8 Tbspn)
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tspn Vanilla extract
• 1 medium size beetroot grated
• 1/2 Tspn Baking powder
• 3/4 tspn Baking Soda
• 4 tbspn Sour cream
• 1 cup water.
• 3Tbspn Coco Powder

Method:

1. In a sauce pan add 1 cup of water, grated beetroot & cook this on medium flame for about 5 to 8 minutes. Until the water is drained off.
2. Once the Beetroot mixture is cooled, put it in the blender & puree it. Now sieve this mixture to remove any lumps & set aside
3. Cream the butter & sugar until fluffy.
4. Add eggs & sour cream one at a time & beat it with a electric mixture until its light & fluffy,
5. Sieve the dry ingredients & set aside
6. Now add in dry ingredients, Beetroot Puree & water little by little, while continue beating the mixture with the electric beater.
7. Once all the dry ingredients, Beet puree & water is added, mix the mixture for another 2 minutes until everything is well mixed.
8. Line the cup cake liner & pour the batter upto 3/4th. Bake this in a pre heated oven for about 25 to 30mins in a 350 F oven.

Cream cheese mixture:
This cream cheese mixture is out of the world. This is so tempting that this frosting can be had with fruits too. It was super yum with fresh Strawberries. The frosting is not very thick like other frostings. Its very light & soft.

Ingredients:

• 200gms Cream cheese (Philadelphia)
• 1 cup whipped cream or topping. (I used cool whip)
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 tspn Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Whip the cream cheese, Vanilla extract & icing sugar until light & fluffy.
2. Now fold in the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture
3. The frosting is ready.

Note:

• Since Beetroot has a very strong raw smell, I decided to boil it before I pureed it. if you like them raw, then you can make a raw puree.
• If you want your cup cakes to look red color, then reduce the amount of cocoa powder.
• This icing is a soft icing, if you want it more stiff you may add in stiff whipping cream . I used the ready to use cool whip, which was very light & soft.