I’ve taken to starting some of my mornings with a glass of beetroot juice.
Apparently the ruddy beet is something of a super-food and a good way to bolster my attempts at living more wholesomely
When they’re not juiced, they’re also pretty good at being baked.
I found a fuss-less recipe for beetroot cupcakes at Varsity View and was really pleased at light and springy they turned out.
Crowned with a pop of lemon buttercream and a cherry on the top, these are pretty and palate-pleasing enough for special occasions or lunch-box specials.
Even though the original recipe indicated a yield of 12 medium-sized cupcakes, I ended up with 34!
Beetroot Cupcakes
via Claire at vview.co.za
- 3 eggs (I used extra-large)
- 300g sugar
- 175ml canola oil
- 5ml vanilla essence
- 60ml hot water
- 240g cake flour
- 15ml baking powder
- 1 ml salt
- 5ml ground cinnamon
- 2.5ml nutmeg
- 200g finely grated beetroot
- 100g finely grated carrot (you could probably substitute this with more beetroot)
- 50g coarsely chopped pecan nuts or walnuts
Preheat oven to 180ºC and prepare baking pans.
Separate the eggs.
Place the yolks into a large mixing bowl or a food processor, and add sugar, oil, vanilla essence and hot water.
Beat or process until just combined.
Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices and beat until smooth.
Add the carrots, beetroot and nuts, mix until just combined.
Beat the egg whites until stiff (I got mine to the stage where I could turn the bowl over without the whites falling out)
Fold into the batter until evenly combined.
Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and cake tester comes out clean.
For the Lemon butter frosting
- 60g butter
- 130g icing sugar
- 15ml lemon juice
- 30ml finely grated lemon zest
Combine ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat until well combined.
Add lemon juice if more liquid is required.
(I started with 100g of butter and adjusted the other amounts to taste. Really liking the tang, I ended up using the juice of one lemon.)
Beetroot is one of my favourite veggies simply because it’s rich in iron and well, since I’m a tad bit anaemic, and can’t stand having liver/kaleji (puke), I seek it out in veggies instead.
I didn’t ever think of having beetroot in cupcakes would seem like such an awesome idea 🙂
Yay 🙂
Thanks for this 🙂
Oh and how many beetroots did you actually use for this recipe – give or take?
I have iron-level issues too and these are so much nicer than popping the supplements I do. I used three medium-sized beets (for ball-park reference: bigger than golf-balls, smaller than tennis-balls.
I’m not a huge fan of cupcakes but I love beetroot and was intrigued by your recipe. Lovely photographs!
Thank you Jane-Anne 🙂
thanks for marshmellow buttercream recipe