Red Velvet Bake-Off

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I find it amazing how the holidays manage to still have me off my game. Here it is, February and I'm just now posting a new episode. Episode 8. Good times. This sucker is a bit different from the others. For one, it's baking. I am not a baker. Sure I enjoy making a tart but that is usually using store bought filo. The only real baking I am good, and quite possibly obsessed with is, banana bread. But banana bread is a quick bread. That is to say, it's a bread that does not use yeast as leavening. I decided to try and tackle that immensely popular pastry, the red velvet cupcake.

I'm not going to go into the history of the danged things since it seems like the web is full of theories. But, in my research I did come across a tid bit that spoke to me, little miss hippie-pants. Back in the depression and WWII bakers couldn't get their hands on artificial food dye and resorted to using beets to color the cakes. Did someone say beets? So, you can guess right now that I jumped at the opportunity to use beets in cake.



The first part of this mega episode includes my friend Miguel, an avid baker, and my best friend Brooke, a Georgia girl who loves red velvet so much that she had an armadillo groom's cake at her rehearsal dinner. For those of you who don't know about armadillo cake, it was featured in Steel Magnolias.

Part 2: Tristan, Brooke's husband, and I get down to the business of beet red velvet and Miguel and Brooke return to make cream cheese frosting. The beet cupcakes were very surprising. Dense and moist with a bit of the earthy beet flavors. Like a cross between a red velvet and carrot cake. I brought in a batch to work and they were a big hit. People didn't seem to mind that they weren't the traditional red velvet. Many commented on how moist and not overly sweet they were. So, I'd say it was a success. After we shot the show I took all of our creations down to the Cookies Without Borders Bake Sale for Haiti. Which I found out raised over $5400 for the Doctors without Borders Emergency Relief Fund.

Part 2: Tristan, Brooke's husband, and I get down to the business of beet red velvet and Miguel and Brooke return to make cream cheese frosting. The beet cupcakes were very surprising. Dense and moist with a bit of the earthy beet flavors. Like a cross between a red velvet and carrot cake. I brought in a batch to work and they were a big hit. People didn't seem to mind that they weren't the traditional red velvet. Many commented on how moist and not overly sweet they were. So, I'd say it was a success. After we shot the show I took all of our creations down to the Cookies Without Borders Bake Sale for Haiti. Which I found out raised over $5400 for the Doctors without Borders Emergency Relief Fund.

Now for the recipes

Brooke's Red Velvet was from
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sara-moulton/southern-red-velvet-cake-recipe/index.html

and Miguel's was Mrs. Paula Deen
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/red-velvet-sandwich-cookies-recipe/index.html

But mine..... oy....

I took some inspiration from this Miami newspaper recipe from 1967 and added beets and changed some of the ingredients.

The result? Well, I'm still working on it but so far it is this.

Andy's Beet Velvet Cupcakes

2 cups of organic flour
1 tsp Salt
3 Tbs cocoa powder (natural)
1 3/4 cups of sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup of earthbound butter or 2/3 cup of crisco
1 cup of sour milk (aka 1 cup milk with 1tbs of vinegar or lemon added)
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 cup of pureed boiled beets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, and sugar.

Then in another bowl mix the eggs, milk, vanilla, beets, butter and vinegar. It's going to look pretty gross but don't worry it will all mix together in the end.

In three batches add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing well but not over doing it. If you mix for too long it will start the baking soda too early and also will mess with the gluten chains in your flour.

Unlike most cupcakes, where you fill to 3/4 full, these cupcakes can be filled to almost the top.
Bake them for about 20 min or until a toothpick test is clean.



These little gems have some more testing and adjusting for sure. I'd love to hear any changes you may make and the results.