You must know by now that here at TGBK we just love YOU (our followers!) and love to celebrate every and all occasions. Well then, this is our week. We've created a special cake in celebration of Cecelia's 30th birthday, The Green Blossom Kitchen's second full year, and of course, Valentine's Day. And this really is a special cake. If you remember our first ever post and still fan favorite recipe, then you may notice a resemblance this week. We used a similar chocolate cake base recipe but with some very different spins. Come find out what we did! First we must note that this cake was made with a lot of love and no artificial colors. We attempted a red velvet cake variation using beet juice as our natural coloring. As you will notice from the pictures, our uncooked batter had a beautiful red color but our final cake was mostly chocolatey goodness. We still knew the beet juice was there and enjoyed our version of red velvet but think the red color may be brighter in your final cake if less cacao powder is used. This is your chance to experiment and let us know! If you do decide to play around, increase the flour in the same ratio that you decrease the cacao powder - we suggest no less then 1/4 cup cacao. So why did we choose beet juice as coloring anyways? Well, the traditional red velvet cake is most often simply chocolate cake with red food coloring added. We prefer foods without chemical coloring for the simple fact that food dye is not a natural part of the diet and not necessary to be consumed. And with so may natural food sources of coloring agents, we just don't see a reason for chemical additives. Finally, we'd like to send a huge thank you to Navitas Naturals for sending us a box full of natural superfoods to use in our recipes. We just love this brand and their products and suggest you check out their website soon. With all that said, on to the recipe! Natural Red Velvet Cake PREP TIME: 40 minutes TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes Servings: 8-12 Ingredients Cake 1 3/4 cup whole wheat flour 2 cups coconut sugar 3/4 cup cacao powder 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp sea salt (we used pink Himalayan) 1 cup "buttermilk" (1 cup coconut milk + 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, let sit for 10 minutes to curdle) 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted 2 Tbsp ground flax seeds + 6 Tbsp room temperature water (let sit for 5 minutes until gelatinous) 1 tsp pure vanilla extract 1 cup fresh beet juice (store bought will also work) Frosting 1/2 cup Lebneh (strained Greek yogurt) 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 Tbsp coconut oil 1-2 tsp beet juice to decorate Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat a 10-12 cup Bundt pan with coconut oil and dust with flour to lightly coat. Sift the dry ingredients together - whole wheat flour, coconut sugar, cacao, baking soda, baking powder, and salt - into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the wet ingredients - "buttermilk", coconut oil, ground flax with water, and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed while slowly adding the wet ingredients to the dry. With the mixer still on low, add the beet juice and mix to just combine, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. The batter will be pretty thin but don't worry, this is what you want. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes. While the cake is cooling, begin making the frosting. To make the frosting combine the lebneh, powdered sugar, and coconut oil in a standing mixer and beat on medium high until fluffy. Spoon frosting into a plastic sealed bag and place in the fridge to cool for at least 15 minutes. Cut a small hole in the bottom corner of the bag to allow for easing piping. Carefully invert the cake onto a cake stand or cake plate. Use your best decorating skills to decorate the cake with the frosting, piping it out into your favorite design. Use a toothpick dipped in beet juice to add a red natural food coloring to the top of the frosting. Serve cake at room temperature or store in the fridge for 3-5 days. This cake will make you feel loved - it's true! The ingredients are real, natural foods and combine in such a delightful way in this recipe. And what a perfect way to include beets in the diet of those who are not as fond of this colorful root vegetable. We hope you make this cake for a special occasion and share it with those that you love. Thank you for an amazing two years of creating recipes for YOU.
With love and gratitude, Jess and Cecelia
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AuthorsJess and Cecelia welcome you to our kitchen. We are fun-loving and passionate foodies working to make the world a healthier, happier place one plant based recipe at a time. Categories
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December 2018
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