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red velvet cake. all natural. no red dye.
This cake ended up being a science experiment.
I wanted to make a red velvet cake without any red food coloring. Though I can handle a little food coloring here and there, the idea of putting in such large amounts into a homemade cake . . . well, I just couldn’t do it. I mean, why would I want to eat a cake that is red for no reason, other than the fact that someone calls it red?
In my research, and the research of my sister (who actually inspired my making this cake after she had made an attempt at something similar), we discovered a number of people in the blogosphere that get quite uppity about what a red velvet cake is and isn’t. I won’t get into that. But I will say that many of these red velvet soap boxers were suggesting the color should come from beets.
So I started there.
My first attempt was brownish purplish. My daughter called it the Purple Satin Cake. It tasted good, so good in fact, that when I stood there, holding the last piece, thinking that I should snap a picture for the blog to show what it looked like, my will power buckled, and into my mouth it went. But it was still brownish purplish.
I spent the next few days reading other blogs and websites. Amy, from BakeCakery*, had a recipe that was a great starting point. From her post, I could see that it could be done. Then, with the help of her descriptions, beet cooking methods, and links to other bloggers, I was able to piece together the science I needed to get a red cake. Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t seen her blog yet, she is extremely talented you should definitely take a look.. She has this tres leches cake that will amaze you.
Amy directed me over to bittersweetblog, where the writer painstakingly experimented with the pH levels in the cake, and how it affects color.
Armed with that knowledge, and before I dove in and wasted another couple pounds of ingredients, I put a small amount of beet puree into two small cups. Then I added different ingredients to each, to see if they would keep the color pink, or turn it purple. Once it turns purple, you see, you will be making the lovely Purple Satin Cake, instead. Which, sadly is more brown than purple.
The goal was to keep the pH as acidic as possible, with no additions of anything alkaline. So baking soda is obviously out. Anyone who has ever helped their kid with a model of a volcano for the science fair knows what I’m talking about. And then Dutch Process or Dark Cocoa powder is out, too. Apparently, chocolate is sometimes processed with alkali to make it smoother, so don’t add regular chocolate or melted chocolate chips, either. To achieve the chocolate taste, you can really only use natural cocoa powder. It’s easy enough to find, though. Hershey’s cocoa powder—as long as it’s not the Special Dark variety—works perfectly. (In the pictures, I used only two tablespoons of the cocoa powder, which kept things very red. If I were to make it again, though, I’d probably add as much as 4 tablespoons.)
Working with this knowledge, I took out my trusty old cream cheese pound cake recipe to use as a base, and created this cake. It’s moist, but dense, smooth, and has the exact crumb I was looking for. My kids loved it, even after I told them it was made with beets. They didn’t care. This cake was all they talked about for days. They wanted it after school, for breakfast, and dessert.
While I was frosting this, I kept thinking of Rosie and her blog Sweetapolita. Oh my goodness is that girl talented! And she has a beautiful family, and she’s an excellent photographer. She’s is the Queen of Cakes. Here are some of my favorite posts:
Her asparagus cake. Crazy beautiful.
This chocolate bundt cake is so stunning.
And her latest is a buttermilk cake with fudge frosting.
So if you’ve never seen her blog, make sure you go take a look.
For good measure, and based on Amy’s suggestion, I used quite a bit of lemon juice just to keep things as bright as possible. So keep these things in mind when you make your cake. Keep the acidity high, and the pH numbers low!!
*Earlier, I had said that Amy’s blog was called CakeBakery, when it is actually BakeCakery. Sorry, Amy! And sorry for any confusion!
all natural red velvet cake
2 large beets (enough for 1 1/2 cups puree)
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened, but not quite room temperature
1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened slightly
2 1/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons natural (not dark or dutch processed) cocoa powder*
cream cheese frosting (recipe follows)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (165 degrees celsius). Place beets in a small baking dish and add a 1/2 cup of water. Cover with parchment paper and foil, and roast until quite tender, about 60-90 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
2. Butter 3 8 inch cake pans. Cut out parchment paper circles and place in the bottoms of the pans. Butter the parchment paper and dust with flour. Set aside. Peel the beets and cut into large chunks. Place in a food processor (or a very good blender) with the lemon juice, and pulse until smooth and pureed.** Stir in the vinegar.
3. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and cream cheese. Pour in sugar and mix until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time, mixing well until each is incorporated. Mix in vanilla.
4. While ingredients are mixing, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder in a separate bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of the beet puree mixture, and fold into the cake batter. Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans. Tap pans on the counter to remove any air bubbles.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean. Invert cakes onto cooling racks, and allow to cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze until ready to frost.
*Some people have commented and said that their cake has turned out maroon in color, instead of the red like the picture. I just tested the recipe again, to see if I could recreate what happened. It could be the cocoa. In the photographs, I used only 2 tablespoons of cocoa because the red color was my main objective, not the chocolate flavor. So, if you’re more concerned about the color than the chocolate flavor, then just use 2 tablespoons of cocoa instead of the 1/4 cup.
**The other thing I discovered while testing it today, is that I didn’t make my puree as fine. In the pictures from last time, you can see that the texture of the beet puree is very smooth, almost like baby food. I think that may have affected the color. Each tiny piece of beet adds to the color, and if there’s more surface area surrounding each teeny tiny piece, then you’ll get a stronger red. I think.
cream cheese frosting
2 packages cream cheese, at room temperature
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 pound (4 cups) confectioner’s (powdered) sugar
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon pure almond extract
Combine all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Switch to the whisk attachment, and mix until smooth and slightly fluffy.
499 Responses to “red velvet cake. all natural. no red dye.”
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Just a friendly note about my findings from making both the red velvet cake and cupcakes with beets yesterday back to back. I am pretty new to red velvet cake in general and with beets vs dye (as yesterday )was my first time ever.
I read many forums and reviewed many recipes, and decided on sophistomom as my source. Although hind sight is 20/20 eh? And so this morning Im going to follow the original recipe i have and either use the beets or omit the beets/dye completely as mentioned in some other threads above.
I didn’t have the right size pans as we are currently in mid move and so used more then one pan to avoid overflowing and or baking complications, and as a result the flavour may have been compromised by the lack of height. All and all I think the cake turned out pretty good.
In particular I didn’t have the colour issue that most of the posts above suggest. My coulour was fabulous, but I didn’t find it tasted anything like the original recipe I was exposed to a few yrs ago in Fl. So yes it is healthier with the beets vs the dye but flavour lacking in regard to what is served in the BBQ joints in FL
Not quite red velvet cake~ and thats no lie! Oh and I definitely think the recipe works better with buttermilk not cream cheese and I prefer the recipe which calls for the baking powder, and baking soda/vinegar concoction.
Thank you for your insights, Sarah!
Hi, literally making this now, I was just wondering if using less cocoa powder reduces flavour, what the difference between using cream cheese and buttermilk flavour and texturise and how do I know when the beet root is cooked?
Hi, Maya! Thanks for checking in. The beets will be done when they are really tender when you poke them with a knife. Cream cheese will make the cake dense with a tight crumb, and buttermilk will make it less dense with a looser crumb. If you add more cocoa, you can definitely tell a difference, and it will make the color slightly darker.
Good luck!!
Hi,
I’m sure somebody else has asked this, but have you made these into cupcakes? Can you provide temperature and timing if you have? My almost 6 year old wants red velvet cupcakes and I just can’t push myself to use the food coloring.
Thank you!
[...] and white but red all over? KELLY’S BAKING FAILS. Let’s talk about it. (you can start here and if you’re hankering for some science, this site’s got you covered) Autumn’s [...]
Hi. I made this cake tonight with my daughter, Izzy, who will celebrate her 11th birthday tomorrow. She wanted red velvet & all natural, so this seemed perfect. She is in bed now and hasn’t seen the result, but the cake is SO SHORT and DENSE. But now that I look at your photos, it seems that your cakes might not be all that light & airy, but the cake looks striking because of the beautiful frosting!! So, I will venture on and make the frosting in the morning – I tasted a bit of the cake an it was definitely not BAD, but it didn’t blow me away like many cakes I have made before. Do you taste the beets in your cake? I think that with the frosting and while celebrate tomorrow night it will be a great accomplishment for my daughter since she did a lot of the work herself! Now if I can only make ours look like yours in the photos — absolutely amazing!!! Thanks.
Also, I was going to make just half of the frosting because it always seems like I toss a ton when I’m done with my cakes…do you really use ALL of the frosting from the recipe listed? And, I’m thinking if I want it to LOOK as fantastic as yours I will have to slather it on so….I guess I’ll probably make the whole recipe..
Hi, Beth! Oh, I am so honored that you would make my recipe for your daughter’s birthday. This is a dense cake. The recipe isn’t supposed to be flat, though. Did it rise at all for you? I’m wondering if maybe your baking powder wasn’t working right. Sometimes, if you use old baking powder, it can have trouble making the cake rise.
I like the way mine tasted with the beets (I couldn’t really taste them at all), but I have made it once where I thought the beets may have been a bit too bitter to begin with, and that affected the flavor a little.
Oh, and to answer your other question, I did use all the frosting. It’s a generous recipe, but I hate not having enough frosting to ice a whole cake. If you do have any left over, you can freeze it. It’s a great frosting for cinnamon rolls.
Good luck with the cake tomorrow. I hope it tastes good even though it’s a dense cake. If you ever want to try making it again, just use buttermilk instead of cream cheese (ame number of ounces), and that will make the cake a little lighter.
Thank you for your comment!
Hi, Juli!!
Yes, we have made them into cupcakes!! Here is the recipe. http://www.sophistimom.com/all-natural-red-velvet-cupcakes/
Best of luck to you! It’s a challenging recipe, and hope they turn out beautiful for your 6-year-old!!
I am INCREDIBLY excited to try this! I am not a fan at all of red velvet cake, but I LOVE to bake! I traditionally bake my friends cupcakes for their birthdays and do my best to cater to what THEY like. Well, my best friend likes red velvet! What’s a girl who dislikes red velvet to do??? Try to make a BETTER red velvet cake, of course!
I am in the process of roasting the beets right now. I can’t even wait to see how these will turn out!!! I am also using the traditional French ermine frosting on mine instead and will be whipping the cream cheese beforehand to hopefully make a slightly lighter cake. (I like the idea of it being dense since I do not plan on filling these with anything, so more substance is good, but TOO dense tends to turn me off to a cake…so maybe this will work!)
I’m SO FRAKING EXCITED and I can’t wait to tell you about it!
I am admitting unfortunate defeat this first round. I am very, very saddened. I’m sure it is somehow my fault and not the fault of the recipe, but these simply will not rise. They just won’t. I’ve tried over and over and now I’m sure the batter has been sitting around too long to work properly as all the chemical reactions in it are probably done and over with. I may try again. I’ll be working against the clock, but I really desperately want these to turn out.
Oh no, Miss Sarah!! I am so sorry!!
And you were so excited!!
It seems like a lot of people are having more luck if they use buttermilk instead of cream cheese. They’ll still be dense, but maybe they will rise for you. When was the last time you changed out your baking powder. I understand that it can sometime get old, and not be as effective as it could be.
I did try the buttermilk the second time and it is still not rising. At all. Like…not even a little bit.
I just changed my baking powder maybe a couple months ago. It’s practically new. I went for broke this second time and just added some baking soda and a little more baking powder to my batter to see if it would help. They’re in the oven now.
The beets definitely make a difference, by the way! This second round the batter is much more red because I used better beets! So I was really optimistic. I used buttermilk instead of cream cheese and followed your cupcake directions EXACTLY. And it still didn’t work.
So I’ve got my fingers crossed that my last ditch effort will work. The party starts in 45 minutes.
Well, they rose! Apparently adding the baking soda was the kicker. After doing some research, I noticed that when you have a lot of acidic ingredients, baking SODA is the one you’re supposed to use…not baking powder. Is this something that maybe you mistyped? I mean, all I had to do was add baking soda and all of a sudden it worked. But….for some reason the red color is no longer there when they rise and the cupcakes taste WAY too much like beets, so I don’t think I can use them. I might be able to. But. :/ I’m still kinda sad. I’ve been working on these for 8 and a half hours and really have nothing to show for it. *sigh* Well, it was a good idea in theory, but I don’t think I’ll be able to get this to work. I might have to just go for the uber amounts of red dye approach and remake these for her another day.
Miss Sarah—I’m so sad they did not turn out the way you had hoped. Yes, it is very true that baking soda is the key to getting something to rise when the ingredients are very acidic . . . this chemical reaction is what makes them rise. However, for this cake, the baking soda also creates an alkaline environment which turns the cake brown.
I’m just wondering . . . does your baking powder contain aluminum in it? I don’t have aluminum in my baking powder, and this is one aspect I haven’t looked into, but I think it’s possible the kind of baking powder people are using could be a problem with both the color and the effectiveness of the rising conditions.
Kudos to you for hanging in there on all those tries. I really wish this had turned out the way you had hoped . . .
Hi. And you feel a cake Vykusi beet? This is how many grams(1 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened slightly)???
Hi, Tany—Thank you for your question. I googled that kind of beet and didn’t find anything. Can you describe it for me?
8-ounces of cream cheese is the same as 225 grams. Thank you for your comment!!!
I do not speak English, pereaodila through Google. He translated incorrectly.
I was asking about the taste of boiled down cake, beet strongly felt. I read the other comments and found the answer. Beautiful cake, if you can I have it, will place you on the site.
Hi! I just realized that the cocoa I purchased IS Dutch processed. Is this still okay to use? Thank you!
Marjani—NO! Don’t use Dutch processed! It will change the pH and you will have a brown cake!
I baked this cake exactly like the recipe says, and it turned out great! The cakes were kinda flat, but as they were so dense it didn’t really matter. I made it for my husbands 40th birthday and he said it was the best cake he’s ever tasted!! So much so that he’s asked me to make it again this weekend. I’m going to get new baking powder and see if that makes a difference in it rising.
The icing was a bit on the runny side, which made cutting the cake a bit difficult. When I sliced it the icing ran out of the sides. I’ll see what I can do to thicken it up a bit. Maybe more icing sugar?
[...] For an extra dark color, you may want to try start with a chocolate based cake or frosting like this beet red velvet cake. [...]
I actually ended up using the dutch processed cocoa and my cake turned out BEAUTIFULLY! It is a deep, gorgeous red and tastes delicious. The only thing I altered in the recipe was to make it a full 2 teaspoons of baking powder. I used fresh beets so maybe they were the reason I didn’t end up with a brown cake. Thank you so much for this recipe!! It’s a game changer!
Hi,
How about red frosting? Do you have a recipe for that using beets? My son wants an Elmo cake for his birthday and I don’t want to use red dye but have heard that it’s difficult to use beet powder to achieve a true red frosting.
Kristi—Aw, that’s so cute. All my kids have nearly outgrown Sesame Street. My seven-year-old did just read There’s a Monster at the End of this Book this morning, but I think that phase might be just about done for him.
As for the red frosting. That’s really difficult. And I don’t think I have the answer you are hoping for. I’ve used beet powder before for things, but it turns things pink, not red. Then, if you add too much, it just tastes like beet powder. Roasted beets are only going to give you pink as well—a gorgeous pink—but probably not the color you’re hoping for with your son. I’m so sorry I don’t have a better answer! But thank you for asking. And don’t give up. Maybe there’s something out there that will work.
Jill—Yes!!! It turned out well!! Yes, the cake is a bit on the dense side. I’m so glad your husband liked it! When you make the frosting again, definitely try adding more sugar and a little less liquid. You could also refrigerate it some, which will help to solidify the butter! Good luck making it again!
Made the cake again. The first time I made it I followed your advice about not pureeing (sp?) The beets too finely. I thought the end result was a bit speckly. I pureed my beets a bit finer and I loved the colour, however I did notice some brown parts to the cake. It was minimal though. Not sure what I’ll do with the beets for my 3rd attempt. I also got new baking powder, but it made no difference in it rising. I’d like to try the buttermilk and maybe more baking powder like someone suggested on here. I don’t know what my 2nd attempt cake like as my husband has taken it to his crew at Sea Rescue. So I’ll get feedback later!
The icing was even worse this time! Worse as in more runny. It tasted great! I left out the cream so as to minimise the liquid, but it was even more runny. I added more icing sugar but it didn’t help. I do think that I’m using the wrong attachment in my food processor. I don’t have a whisk attachment and have been using the normal blade attachment. Could this be causing it to come out so runny? Maybe I should try mixing it by hand.
Hi, Jill,
Okay, that is so weird about the frosting. Alright, you need to tell me exactly how much of everything you’re putting in. I’ve never heard of it getting runny before.
How many ounces are in your cream cheese? What temperature is your kitchen—cold? warm?
The kitchen was “normal” to cool temp. I actually halved the ingredients for the icing as the last time I made it there was loads of icing. I did however still use the same amount of icing sugar as the original recipe. In fact I used more!
So this time I used:
1 package cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter
5 cups icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence (I didn’t have extract)
2 tsp almond essence (I added more because of the amount of icing sugar I used. 1 tsp wasn’t enough to get that almond taste coming through).
Well it was a huge flop, the icing I mean. The whole cake just slid apart
and because it wasn’t visually appealing, no one really enjoyed it. Was a bit disappointing as the cake and the icing still tasted great. Just didn’t look great.
Does this cake end up having ANY beet flavor? If so, how strong?
[...] well, if I was to make it again I’d refer to Sophistimom who took the beet experiement seriously and seems to really know what she’s doing in the [...]
Nick, thank you for asking. The readers are divided on this—some say there is a strong flavor, others say there isn’t. I think it depends on what kinds of beets you have (whether they taste sweet of bitter—I think the bigger they are, the sweeter they are), and how much you like beets. It seems to me the people who hate beets, are looking for the cake to taste like beets, and that’s exactly what they find, and then of course, they hate the cake. If you like beets, then the cake generally tastes good, because you haven’t already decided you hate one of the major ingredients of the cake. Does that make sense? What are you? A hater or a lover? . . . of beets, I mean!!
can i eliminate/substitute cream cheese ingredient in cake please?
Marica—yes, use buttermilk. The same number of ounces.
After managing to convert US measurements to Uk I have made this for my parent’s 80th party tonight,.Only thing I did differently was add whisked egg whites into the final mix (yolks having already been added)after reading comments about cake not rising.Looks great ,will just have to wait for a verdict on taste from part guests! Karen
Kare—Thank you for telling us about the egg whites. Hope it works! Fingers crossed, eh?
Cake huge hit with party guests.Sadly I didn’t get to sample my own handiwork as I cake was all gone by the time I was ready for a piece!Many thanks for taking the time and effort to post this great recipe.
Karen—Oh no!! I’m so sad you didn’t get any!! Wow, nothing is worse than that! Did you at least get to taste a scrap before you frosted it??
Hi. I’m going to make your cake for my boyfriend’s 30th b-day. I was wondering how using Cacao will work which is (raw and fermented)not roasted like cocoa powder. i use it in all my other recipes calling for cocoa powder and it works fine.
Tina—That’s a great question. I think the cacao should work just fine. That’s just a guess though. Do you have a really fine cacao? I just have the nibs and that Crio Bru stuff.
Comment to Jill with runny frosting…I think it is using the blade in your food processor rather than a whip atttachment. You don’t incorporate air with the blade. Hand whip with a wooden spoon.
I’m excited to try this cake! I’m planning a fire engine bithday cake for a 5-year-old and hope I can avoid the food coloring.
[...] yesterday, I did find an interesting blog article with a guide to using pureed roasted beets succesfully in a red velvet cake recipe. Even though I [...]
Just wondering if I can pour the batter into cupcake tins with liners to make cupcakes?
Alauna–Yes, you can. But I also have a cupcake recipe which can be found here: http://www.sophistimom.com/all-natural-red-velvet-cupcakes/
Thank you for asking, and good luck!
Hi, Just made this in Northern France, the land of the beets and it worked great! It’s a nice deep pinky red just like in your picture. Thanks for all the chemistry work for me !
That’s wonderful to hear, Rebecca! Thank you so much for letting us know!
Hi!
I was going around the internet trying to look for a velvet cake recipe that didn’t have artificial colouring. That is how I found your blog. The thing is that I’m not from the U.S. but from Chile, and we do not use cups or ounzes for the recipes, but grams and mililiters. I’ve tried using your measurement method, but the recipies just don’t work (I don’t know why really)
Is there any chance you have the recipe written down in this other system? And if not, what do you mean by “two sticks of unsalted butter”? When you measure that in tbs, Is the butter melted?
Thanks
!
Camila—Thank you for your question. You’re not alone. Several people have trouble getting this recipe to work since it’s such a delicate balance. Can you tell me in what way the recipe isn’t working?
In the US, our butter stick have little lines to indicate the number of tablespoons, so we don’t need to melt it to measure it. A stick here is equal to 112g.