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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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I am so excited to make this cake for my daughter Ruby’s first birthday party. I am allergic to chocolate. How do you think this recipe will do without the cocoa? I’m also thinking of doing cupcakes versus cake. Should I give it a try or stick to the cake?
Allison, I think it might work fine with no cocoa. It doesn’t add that much flavor. Also, some readers have reported back that they made the cake into cupcakes with no problem, so it should be fine. Good luck!
I tried making the cake but it didn’t turn out red.. it was more of maroon and i could taste the cocoa in the case. Could it because of the cocoa powder that I use?
Hi, Sam–The color of the cake all comes down to the kind of beets you use and the kind of cocoa of cocoa you use. What kind of beets were they? And what kind of cocoa?
If those are all in check, then the next question I would ask is what kind of lemon juice you used?
This is like electronic gold – So many people have been looking for an online recipe for RVC without nasty petroleum food coloring! Thanks for all of your hard work! I’ve shared a link to this page on my Twitter and Facebook.
Die, Food Dye!
http://www.diefooddye.com
On Twitter: @DieFoodDye
Also on Facebook as Die Food Dye
This is like electronic gold – So many people have been looking for a RVC recipe without all the nasty petroleum food coloring! Thanks for all of your hard work! I posted a link to your page from my Twitter and Facebook.
Die, Food Dye!
http://www.diefooddye.com
Twitter: @DieFoodDye
Facebook: Die Food Dye
This recipe is amazing! I am alergic to red dye and I was so excited to see this recipe
hi
has anyone tried beet powder
HI,
What type of lemon juice and beets do you suggest?
Thanks in advance
DC
Do you happen to know if I could just JUICE the beets in my wheatgrass juicer and get the same results as roasting them?
Thank you!
That’s a great question, Ellen. I actually love juicing beets! They make every drink beautiful. You could definitely use the juice as color, but I have absolutely no idea how it would make the texture of the cake turn out. I’d reduce the cocoa a bit, for sure, but I’d probably use the juice as a replacement for a liquid in some other recipe that calls for milk, you know?
You might try my vanilla cupcake recipe, and tweak it like this:
vanilla bean cupcakes
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup beet juice
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons vinegar
1 tablespoon natural (not dark) cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin tin with cupcake liners. Combine all ingredients in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Fill cupcake liners slightly more then halfway full.
2. Bake for 15 minutes, or until center cupcakes bounce back when touched. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Frost with strawberry buttercream.
****I’ve never tried this, so if any of you try it, I’d love to know how it works out!
Sounds great!! I will try it! Thanks for responding!
Hi –
Thank you so much for this recipe! I am really uncomfortable with red food dye and was relieved to find your site.
One question – I have been looking at other recipes and have seem some that increase the cocoa up to 1/2 cup. What do you think increasing the cocoa by that much will do to the cake, if anything? (I would really like to up the chocolate flavor.)
TIA,
Mel G.
Mel,
Thanks for your question. I found recently, that adding more cocoa does take the brightness of the red down quite a bit. I just made the recipe with 1/4 cup instead of 2 tablespoons (like the picture) and found the taste to be a little on the heavy side. You could try it, though, if you want the chocolate to shine through. But you will definitely get a darker cake than the one in the picture.
Jaime
[...] have any cheese in it, but the ‘au naturale’ beetroot recipe I found online did (click), and I thought that if I substituted beetroot with dragon fruit and followed the rest down to a T [...]
Gah! You are a genius. I love your blog. My kids and family still will not eat zucchini bread unless it’s “Zucchini Pound Cake with cinnamon sugar crust”. When are you going to publish a cookbook?!
Thanks, Kris! How have you been? I’m actually coming out with a cookbook in 2013.
Hi again!! I making your recipe actually, right now..LOL and Im making it into cupcakes. I was wondering why use the creamcheese in the batter? Is it instead of buttermilk or sour cream in other recipes?
Ellen–I used cream cheese because I wanted a denser texture. You can do whatever you want, though.
Dear sophistimom,
Thank you for this recipe. I did everything exactly as you said. The cake came out more maroon than red but after all beets are maroon. I mixed beet puree with vinegar and lemon juice and beets did not lose their original color at all.
Taste is great as well. I also told my children it had beets and they did not care much because the cake was delicious. Frankly, I ate the most of it.
Thanks a ton!
So glad it tasted good, Esther!
I made this cake for my daughter’s birthday wednesday and it came out PERFECT. Thank you so much, I love red velvet cake and hate food coloring! Mine doesn’t look as fantastic as yours, I had to make it into a butterfly shape and only two layers but it tasted awesome.
If you’re interested I posted on it here, with the due credit of course.
http://moomser.blogspot.com/2011/11/butterfly-natural-red-velvet-birthday.html
Last week I did a dry run on this cake using a recipe on youtube.Used beat juice and it turned out pretty purple. This round I used red food colouring and it STILL turned out purple. I think red dye additive is unavailable in Canada. People will still love it but was hoping for a more santa christmas red. Used 1 cream cheese and one small container of mascarpone cheese for frosting. SO Good!
Awww… so excited to make this b/c it didn’t have 1 oz. of food coloring. But, the flavor was rather “beet-ish”. The cake tasted very “earthy”. Ever tried any natural red besides beets (raspberries, strawberries, etc.)? Hoping for a natural dye alternative for a RVC but the overall cake needs to taste as good as the “Waldorf Astoria” recipe.
Maybe it’s the season, Brittany. The last time I made this, I thought it tasted a little beet-ier than when I made it in the summer. It might be because beets are in season and more flavorful. I also found the color to be darker when I made it recently.
I’m wondering, do you know if anyone has worked with vegan-izing your recipe? I would love to try that. I bake the “special” cakes at my church, and that means a laundry list of food no’s- no gluten, vegan, no bananas, extra fiber, no fat, no processed sugar (fructose crystals or something like an agave nectar for sweetening)
I’m so excited to see this cake! I want to make it for Christmas eve because it’s my cousin’s favorite cake, but she is allergic to red food dye.
You mentioned in the comments that it depends on the “Type” of beets and lemon juice you use.
I’ve never heard of there being different types of beets… what type should you use for the best chance of a red color? What type of lemon juice?
Lisa K–I just used regular fresh beets, both times. But they resulted in a brighter cake in the summertime, and a slightly darker cake in the winter. I used freshly squeezed lemon juice, as well. I don’t think that makes a difference.
I do think it’s very important to roast the beets long enough to get a very smooth puree, almost like baby food.
Lisa K–Oh, and also try refrigerating the cake before you serve it. That’s how I made the one in the picture.
I’m ok with a darker cake – our red velvet cake was never 100% red.
I’ll report back with my results!
Never baked a cake in my life from scratch! Tomorrow is my 32nd birthday and Im going to give this cake a try as a gift to myself. Will share how it turns out. Im going to try it with gluten free flour and xantham gum. Wish me luck:)
Wow, Annalay, this is a very ambitious cake to try for your first time, and gluten-free, too. Good, good, good luck!! Whether you do well or not, baking cakes from scratch (at least other kinds), is a great way to go, especially if you’re making them gluten-free—so much cheaper. Some of those mixes are $5 a box! Hope this goes well for you!
I am allergic to lemons(actually all forms of citrus)do you think I could just leave out the lemon juice? I sometimes substitute pineapple juice for any citrus would that work here? Thanks!
P. Vickers–That stinks, I’m sorry you’re allergic to lemons. Pineapple juice would probably work well. It’s all about the acid, really. You can probably just add a tiny bit more vinegar, instead, too. Thanks for asking!
Hello, I am at my wits end about how to get a red velvet cake naturally red.
I tried your recipe and 3 others and all of them did not turn out at all. Your recipe was just too runny and the middle never got done while the bottom had burned (and it wasn’t red but brown) and the other 3 recipes turned out varying shades of brown as well. Have you ever had any problems with there being so much liquid in your recipe? For beets I am using some of the beets we canned from our garden last year…is that the problem? They never turn the batter the color red as in your photos above; the color is always the brown that the final product comes out as. I’m so lost! And slightly frustrated and tired of wasting so many ingredients 
Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.
Hi, Mary Anne,
I feel your frustration. When I first started testing this recipe, my first attempt came out purplish-brown. The one in the picture, to be honest, was my best attempt. However, when I made it again, though the cake did turn out red, it wasn’t as red as I expected it to be. That’s the thing about using the natural ingredients. They can be very finicky. That said, I think the first problem was the beets you used. With canning, I imagine some of the pigment fades after time, which would have resulted in a dingier cake. It’s really paramount to use fresh beets, and then roast them. Roast them long enough that they become very tender.
One thing about this cake is, the color you see going into the oven will always be brighter than what comes out. So if it’s brown going in, sad to say it, it will be brown—or should I say browner?—coming out.
As for the runny-ness of the cake, you are the first to mention that. Some commentators have complained that the batter was too dense, or too thick. But it sounds like there may be some issues with your oven. Did you bake this on the middle rack? If you did, then it sounds like your oven is pumping too much heat into the bottom of the oven, which would result in a burned bottom. Or the thermostat in your oven could be way off—sometimes my own oven is off by as much as 75 degrees. If you find that things aren’t cooking through the middle, and burning on the bottom, then I would suggest baking the cake on a higher rack in the oven, and turning the temperature down by as much as 50 degrees. Try baking it at 300 degrees, in the top third of the oven, and see if that helps.
I hope that helps, and good luck!
Thank you so much for your help!! I appreciate it VERY much!
Hi! I was wondering if I could make a lighter fluffier red velvet cake instead of more on the dense side like you mentioned about this recipe? Please let me know? Thanks so much!
Hi, Ann–you could probably make it fluffier by switching out the cream cheese for buttermilk, but I’ve never tried it. Also, on November 18, someone asked about juicing beets, and I gave her a recipe she could test out (though I’ve never tried it), that would result in a fluffier cake.
Hi, thanks for your suggestions. But a question, so if I substitute the cream cheese for buttermilk then would it result in too much liquid in the recipe when I bake it or would it be okay? I just thought buttermilk is more “liquid or watery” than cream cheese. The reason I have not tried use beet juice because I read in some other recipes that the result of RVC made with beet juice come out with a spicy taste to it but I’m not sure because I’ve never tried it before. Please let me know? Thanks so much!
Hi again, I was just wondering if you have a good type of dark chocolate frosting for this red velvet cake? I want to make it for a good friend’s bday in few days. Please help?! Thanks.
Ok! I did a dry run of a modification of this recipe (if you click on my name, it’ll take you to my recipe blog where I posted my modified recipe – credited this blog for the inspiration, btw).
Here’s what I learned:
If you use buttermilk instead of cream cheese, you shouldn’t use vinegar too – it creates a bitter aftertaste.
Don’t use chocolate extract AND vanilla extract. Ew.
And chocolate extract is really dark…lol.
Oil in place of butter will also lighten the cake.
My cake came out ok; it wasn’t perfect – but again, I was basically completely redoing your recipe so… my modifications changed it drastically lol. Attempt 2 will take place this weekend
Hi there, I’ve been searching for years to find a rvc recipe without the dye, so I’m excited to try this! I noticed that someone mentioned to substitute cream cheese for buttermilk if its too dense? If so how much buttermilk? Can’t wait to try this!
I am extremely excited to try this cake out this weekend for our xmas dinner, family will be my guinea pigs….lol! Do you know the REAL history of this cake, I’ve read a few different versions….from Lady Eaton creating it for Eatons Canada, to the Waldorf Restaurant serving it in NY, since the 20′s………very curious as to how this recipe came about?
I made this cake today..having never made a cake from scratch ever! It was fun to make, a little more time then suggested but I think only because I was nervous. I bought my beets from the Organic Market and baked and pureed them. Followed the directions to the T. Except I cut the coco powder down a 1/2 TBS.. It looked just like your picture and it was out of this world good.. Thank you so much for this. I made it for my boyfriends birthday…He loved it
Yay!! So glad it worked out well for you, Emily!!
I followed this recipe to a T (used 2Tbs cocoa) and it came out beautifully! I did make cup cakes instead of the cake. The color is a little like dark maroon, but it’s close enough to red and looks almost exactly like the picture. I make homemade baby food with my stick blender, so it was a perfect tool to blend the beets.
Thanks so much for this. It’s already 7, and I’ve got to make about 30-40 cupcakes for tomorrow. I’m 13, making cupcakes for like… Everyone. I only had beet juice, my mom told me to use it but I’m so used to using regular dye.Thank you so much again! I can’t wait to start making them!
I just made it for a friend’s birthday. I used 2 tbsp of cocoa as you recommend and it came out a brilliant deep velvet red. Thanks!
I substituted the frosting you suggest with one I have for carrot cake that uses sour cream and cream cheese – still rich and creamy but not as sweet:
1 pkg 8oz cream cheese
1 stick butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sour cream (not the light one – full fat)
blend cream cheese and butter until smooth. slowly add the sugar, then the vanilla. when smooth add sour cream, beat just enough to blend (not too much or it will thin out).
A big hit this Christmas with our health nut, surfing family!
Instead of roasting the beets I steamed them whole which made them easy to peel and then made the puree. To make muffins, fill up each to top. In the tropics we omitted the cream to keep the icing stiff. Such a silky texture. Delicious!