Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes (recipe review for Vegan Mofo)

I love to make recipes that are veganized versions of really trendy foods.  For my sister's recent birthday, I went out on a limb when it came to the cake, and tried out The Sweetest Vegan's Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes.  I think that this is a fantastic choice for a veganized recipe, because I don't know very many people who are fond of the nasty things (like bugs) which make up typical red food colouring, which is found in revolting quantities in typical red velvet cupcakes.

As I mentioned on my last recipe review, I have a policy of not screwing with the recipe the first time I make it.  So I plowed on as dictated, and found that my first test batch of these cupcakes came out distinctly brown instead of red (sorry no picture, ate them too fast!).  I blamed the cocoa for this, the cupcakes were more "secretly filled with beets" chocolate cupcakes than red velvet cupcakes.  I topped them with vegan cream cheese icing and ate them up anyway.  They were exceptionally good, I loved that no one could taste the healthy beets hidden within (especially my notoriously beet-hating DH!)

So, round 2.  I decided for the second batch (the batch for my sis' BD) that I would omit the cocoa in an attempt to really capture the colour of red velvet cupcakes.  I added a little extra vanilla to help mask the flavor of the beets, which I think was the purpose of the cocoa in my earlier attempt.

At any rate, they weren't so much red velvet as PINK velvet cupcakes, as you can see in this shot before I iced them:

Pink pink pink pink pink!

They came out really pink.  Like, hot pink.  They looked like they should taste like strawberries.  Anyway, aside from the fact that they were not really all that red (I think I needed even more beets), they were still good.  I'm glad I added the extra vanilla to hide the beet flavor.

Now because I was out of Tofutti, I iced these ones with regular vegan butter icing (which is basically just icing sugar and margarine with a dash of soy milk).  They ended up almost revoltingly sweet as a result.  My omni family and sister really liked them though, because their sugar tolerance is a lot higher than mine.  When The Sweet Vegan talks about the "mandatory cream cheese icing", she means it!  It is mandatory, otherwise they are just too sweet!

Iced and ready to go to birthday party!

So to conclude, The Sweet Vegan's Red Velvet Cupcake recipe is a really good one, and a great way to hide some nutritious beets in a sweet!  I think her original chocolate ones are just a bit yummier, so in this case, stick to the recipe and you're certain to be delighted!