Happy Valentine’s Day! One time Tony and I were talking about our favorite old diners and he mentioned one and said, “They had the best red velvet cake.” I never had red velvet cake before our discussion, but I’ve seen it in the store and it’s apparently a chocolate cake with red dye in it. Yet if it’s truly a cake of its own that was traditionally in old diners, then it must have been colored with something other than red food color.
I found online that the red color originally came from a beet and began searching for recipes but decided beet cake, even though I love beets, wasn’t doing it for me. Last month there was a beet red velvet cake in Cooking Light that renewed my interest. I used their method of making the beet puree and modified the rest. Take the eggs, butter, and cream cheese out of the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before starting so the coconut oil doesn’t solidify when it gets added to a cold mixture.
Red Velvet Cake
1 beet
3/4 C buttermilk
2 t vanilla
2 C flour
3 T cocoa
1 t baking powder
1/2 t sea salt
1/2 C unsalted butter, softened
1 C organic coconut palm sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C coconut oil (melted)
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 350. Place cut up beet in a small pot; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Cook 10 minutes. Drain and cool slightly. Cut beet in quarters and put in food processor; process until very finely chopped. Keep 1 cup beet in processor; add buttermilk and vanilla. Process a couple of minutes until very smooth.
Whisk the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, and melted coconut oil; beat for a few minutes until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add half the beat puree, followed by half of the dry ingredients, repeat to just combine wet and dry ingredients. Pour into two greased 9” cake pans and bake for 20-25 minutes until top feels firm. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely before frosting.
Frost the center and top of cake. To frost the top, put all of the remaining frosting on the cake, and then spread it around to avoid getting crumbs in the frosting.
Frosting
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 t vanilla
3 T cream
3 C powdered sugar (confectioner’s)
Whip the cream cheese, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of cream until smooth. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar. Add another tablespoon of cream if necessary to achieve desired consistency.
