Beet red velvet cake

How to make your own red velvet cake from scratch without using artificial dyes!

For those with a sweet tooth, red velvet cake is a festive treat. Do you know the Texas connection within this bright red delectable? The tell-tale color was popularized by Adams Extract, one of the oldest continuously operated companies in Texas and one of the oldest spice and extract companies in the United States.

This moist and vibrant red velvet cake is made completely dye free! It gets its natural color all from fresh beets. They're pureed and mixed into the batter to create that beautiful red velvet color WITHOUT the artificial dye. Most importantly, you cannot taste the beets one bit!

You will love this red velvet beetroot cake prepared without any food coloring. Deliciously sweet, earthy and extremely moist in texture, the cake is paired with an irresistible velvety vanilla frosting.

Pamela Moxley, the pastry chef at Miller Union in Atlanta, developed this cake as part of a book project for Steven Satterfield, the co-owner and chef. She uses dutched, nonacidic cocoa powder so she punched up the acid with extra lemon juice, which helps with the bright red color. She adds goat cheese to her cream cheese frosting, to play against the subtle beet flavor. The chef liked it so much that he added it to the restaurant menu.

These moist eggless red velvet cupcakes are colored naturally using beetroot. No artificial colors are used.

Now, while I love the idea of red velvet, ingesting that much Red 40 isn’t quite as appealing, so I set out to make an all-natural red cake recipe, using beets.

The red velvet cake can easily be made without the use of food coloring. The answer lies in beet juice, which was often used in the time after World War II when cocoa was scarce. However, not only does beet juice make the cake visually pop, but, despite the common misconception, it adds to the sweetness of the cake without compromising its traditional flavor. The following recipe gives instructions on beet juice-colored sponges and cream cheese frosting.

This natural red velvet cake recipe pairs mini naturally dyed beetroot powder cake layers with a light and airy whipped cream cheese frosting.