This is the Red Velvet Cake from RHC. I baked it for this week’s Free Choice on the HCB bake-a-long. The entry is posted on my blog and it’s a longer story there.

The cake is very easy to make. I’ve made the white chocolate frosting a couple of times before, it’s pretty easy and it came together nicely. The only challenge in this cake is the red color. I wanted to use beet juice instead of food coloring. Bought 4 beets especially for this occasion . Followed Rose’s instruction exactly and there’s no juice inside the foil. So ended up improvising and squeezing the beets with my hands. It was pretty successful, I only squeezed the 2 big ones on the left and got about 50 grams of juice.

I was so happy to see how pink the batter turns out, and even happier to see how red the cake is after it’s baked. Was a little worried that I will be able to taste beet inside the cake, but that wasn’t the case.

Tasting impression: this cake is really good. I can’t really describe the taste as there’s no single component ingredients that stands out. I do taste a hint of cocoa, and the cake is very moist and tender. The white chocolate frosting does complement it nicely. This frosting is usually too much for me but in this cake it’s perfect.

Side note: I honestly do not remember if anyone has ever decorated a cake like this before (and therefore my apologies that I can’t give proper credit). I vaguely remembered seeing something similar but perhaps I’m mistaken. In any case, the roses decoration on the cake is inspired by Hector - who piped such beautiful bc roses. Thanks for the inspiration, H .

Jenn, honored, and lovely hue.  i am going to post picture 3 on my blog.

Hah, Jenn, great minds think alike! I had already bought beets and had roasted them to make this cake, but then bailed at the last minute and went for the Banana Cake.

It looks lovely!

You’ve just about inspired me to go out and finally buy a heart shaped pan…was trying to discipline myself with all of these specialty pans, but your red velvet cake looks so pretty in it I’m not sure I can keep resisting!

Jenn, fabulous job, love the roses and the natural coloring!  I’m so, so happy to see a version with beet juice. 

I was sceptical that the beet juice would produce a red enough color, but I can clearly see that it does.  That’s really good to know too, because when I made it I used a bottle of red food coloring, and there’s just something weird about using all natural ingredients and then adding a bottle of chemicals!  Beautiful cake!

Your cake and roses are just gorgeous!  May I ask, though, what is the leftmost picture??  OH—never mind—just checked your blog.  It’s the beets! Awesome!

I’m going to pass your link along to a woman here at work who has been doing RVC with beet juice experiments!

p.s.

Wow, Knittybaker, what a beautiful blog you have!

Hector, the honor is all mine . I look forward to the post!

Silke, how funny! Great minds do think alike. I just can’t imagine using a little red food coloring, let alone the whole bottle.

Julie and BakerJD, I figure it’s time to experiment. And I was also curious about how red it can be.

Loopy, I got the heart shaped pan last January and this is the 1st time I used it. Not sure how often it’ll be used, but it sure is pretty isn’t it?

Rosetheos, the picture on the very left are the roasted beets in their aluminium foil. I was trying to show that there’s not a single drop of juice in there. So I ended up squeezing them for the juice. Thanks for the compliments on my blog .

I have a juicer, so I guess if I try this I will just juice the cooked beets. Sounds a lot easier than doing it with my hands! I agree, I’ve been very put off by the food coloring, but would be willing to try using the beet juice.

Your cake looks so tender and moist! The fact that each individual slice gets it own lovely rose is such a great idea.

knit1bake1 - 02 June 2010 01:13 AM

I have a juicer, so I guess if I try this I will just juice the cooked beets. Sounds a lot easier than doing it with my hands! I agree, I’ve been very put off by the food coloring, but would be willing to try using the beet juice.

Hi, Knit1Bake1 !!

Do you have a centrifugal (spinning) juicer or an auger style juicer?  If it’s an auger style (which is the kind I have—a Sampson), you can also make nut flours and nut butters really, really fast.  The nut butters are amazing and make the most wonderful homemade marzipan.

Gorgeous cake Jenn! Love the roses on it.

Thanks Rozanne! I’m on a roses-piping trail these days. So more roses will be coming .

So nice to have a photo of this, I was wondering what the beet version was like