Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I like the idea of red velvet cupcakes, but I never made them because I don't like baking artificially. Recently, I was invited to a friend's birthday and she requested international food. I thought, how can I make something Polish AND American? So I picked a very American dessert (red velvet cupcakes) and used a very Polish ingredient (beets). It also just so happened that the Polish colors are found in a red velvet cupcake. Perfect dessert!

Now, the challenge was to find a good enough recipe that would keep the red color, without containing an overbearing beet or acidic flavor (used to prevent the beets from browning). I did a bunch of research and found a bunch of recipes, but none to my liking. They tend to be less healthy than I would have liked them to be.

SO, I invented my own. Still needs a bit of tweaking, but I received compliments on them.
(they still have a slight beet flavor - so if you don't like beets, you might want to change the proportions a bit - I'll include suggestions on what I want to try next time...and if it comes out better, I'll edit the post)

CUPCAKE:

• ¾ cup beets (roasted in foil until tender ~50 mins -- 3/4 cup is about 1 medium-large beet)
• ¼ cup oil
• ¼ cup apple sauce
• 2 eggs
• 4 tsp vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 limes (1/4 cup) +balsamic vinegar (1/2 tsp) + apple cider vinegar (1/2 tsp)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup natural unsweetened chocolate (not dutch)

FROSTING (adapted from my carrot cake recipe):

• 1 ounces white chocolate
• 1/2 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Melt white chocolate (over the stove or in the microwave). 
3. Mix cream cheese and butter. Add the vanilla and white chocolate. 
4. Slowly add the confectioners' sugar. Put in the refrigerator to harden a bit.
5. Shred and puree beets (or put into food processor) – add wet ingredients together
6. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl 
7. Blend wet ingredients with the dry. Pour into cupcake mold and bake for around 20 mins (or until your toothpick comes out clean). Let them cool.
8. Use a pastry decorating bag for the frosting - with the tip, insert into the center from the top and stuff the cupcake a bit with the frosting. Then top it with a bit more. You can sprinkle whatever you'd like to top it off - I used roasted coconut flakes.
   
   Makes 12 cupcakes.

Suggestions for next time:

• I will try only using balsamic vinegar - might bring out more of the sweetness. 
• If I had a food processor, I would try not baking the beets before and just make a puree from fresh beets to preserve some of the color. Might influence the flavor a bit more - just something to consider!
• Add more chocolate (maybe 1/2 cup)
• Add 5 tsp of yogurt 
• Add 2 1/2-3 tsp of baking powder (the mixture is very dense/rich)
• You can try adding less beets (say 2/3 or 1/2 cup and add in a bit more apple sauce (1/3 cup, instead of 1/4) to replace some moisture lost) 

When playing with the chocolate to beet ratio, you might want to be careful because you don't want to lose the red color - beets will turn brown and the chocolate might exasperated it.