Red Velvet Cupcakes With Spiralized Beets

Red Velvet Cupcakes With Spiralized Beets

Sunday Funday with some grain-free and sugar-free cupcakes from Liz of Sprouted Routes! Liz is...

Red Velvet Cupcakes With Spiralized Beets

Sunday Funday with some grain-free and sugar-free cupcakes from Liz of Sprouted Routes!

Liz is a food editor, blogger, cookbook author (Glow Pops!) and all around health all-star, and I’m pumped for you to meet her.

Liz and I have the same publisher AND editor and met through some cookbook events throughout the years. She’s one of the realest, tells-you-how-it-is kinda gals out there, and she has a great perspective on health: she’s curious!

She does a lot in the wellness space, and it’s no wonder she’s come up with some seriously healthy cupcakes for you all to enjoy, topped with some spiralized beets.

Red Velvet Cupcakes With Spiralized Beets

From Liz:

My name’s Liz, and I do about 8 million things, with one common thread: healthy food.

By day, I’m the food editor at mindbodygreen, an awesome wellness website with tons of info on how to eat to get rid of anxiety and inflammation, the best yoga poses for desk-workers, how to actually start meditating and more.  By night, I’m writing cookbooks (my first one, a healthy popsicle book, came out over the summer, and I’m hard at work on my next manuscript now!) and working on my blog baby, Sprouted Routes (or sharing all of my weird health habits and strange things I’m experimenting with on Instagram).

Sprouted Routes is a healthy recipe haven (want a gut-healing soup? I got it!  Need some turmeric-spiked muffins? Got those too!), but, because I’m actually quite an unhealthy eater deep in the buried parts of my soul, it often ends up showcasing my desire to take the desserts I so crave and make them healthy.

Red Velvet Cupcakes With Spiralized Beets

Sprouted Routes is where I create cookie dough I can feel good about eating by the spoonful, or grain-free, sugar-free Snickers Pie (yeah…this is the kind of food I crave).  So come hang out! We can gossip about how ridiculously adorable and absurdly healthy Ali’s baby is 🙂

These cupcakes have a secret ingredient, and it’s super good for your body: beets.  During World War 2, when bakers had to ration certain ingredients, they’d often use beets to add a rich color to their cakes and voila—red velvet was born.  Since then, the sweet treat has strayed far from its roots, with most bakers simply squeezing in a few drops of red food dye to their chocolate batter.

But why do that when you can employ the earthy sweetness of beets—and benefit from the mega-dose of fiber and anti-inflammatory elements they add?  They also help keep the cupcake super moist.  If you’re a beet-hater, don’t fear—just chop the beets super fine after spiralizing, and you’ll never know they’re there!

Red Velvet Cupcakes With Spiralized Beets

Connect with Liz:

Note: Hi, it’s Ali! I’m currently taking time off the blog for a maternity leave. During this time, I will be featuring some of the bloggers who have inspired me – they’ve provided spiralized recipes for all of you to enjoy during my absence. I’m honored to introduce them to you if you don’t know them already – and I hope you enjoy this new series!

If you have any questions regarding this recipe or anything Inspiralized related, you can feel free to leave a comment and Meaghan, our Director of Community & Brand will get back to you! You can also reach her via e-mail – she will escalate anything urgent to me, but as I said, I will be preparing for my little one’s arrival and then, of course, enjoying time with him and my husband. You can follow me on Instagram for personal updates – on @inspiralizedali and @inspiralized. Thank you for your understanding and patience as I begin this exciting new chapter of my life!

Red Velvet Cupcakes With Spiralized Beets

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

  • Cupcake Ingredients:
  • 2 small beets ends and especially dirty bits removed, spiralized on Blade D
  • 2 cups almond flour
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ cup cooled melted coconut oil or avocado oil
  • ¼ cup maple syrup
  • 3 room temperature eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Frosting Ingredients:
  • 1 cup raw cashews soaked for 4-5 hours, then drained well
  • 3 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  • Pull out any especially pretty spiralized beets and save for garnish at end. Give the rest of them a quick chop so none are long and stringy.
  • In a bowl, mix together almond flour, cocoa powder, sea salt, and baking soda until homogenous. Add oil, maple syrup, eggs, and vanilla, and mix well to combine. Stir in beets and mix until evenly distributed.
  • Pour into lined, full sized cupcake tin, filling each one a bit over ¾ of the way. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
  • To make frosting, blend together all ingredients until very creamy—you want to let the blender or food processor go longer than you’d think, scraping down the sides, to let the nuts release their oils and get a truly creamy result. Spread frosting on cupcakes and garnish with a beet spiral. Store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Red Velvet Cupcakes With Spiralized Beets

with love, Ali

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Recipe Rating




comments

  • If you don't add the garnish, can you store them at room temperature for a few days instead of the fridge?
    • We recommend keeping them refrigerated to maintain freshness.
  • Hi! I'm allergic to nuts. What can I use in place of the cashews and almond flour?
    • I would like to know about substitutions for nuts as well.
    • You can use all-purpose flour, just note: almond flour can usually require more egg or binding agents, so you may have to play around with ratios to get these to come out correctly. Just experiment! As for the cashews - you can make your own frosting without the cashews - cashew frosting just helps to cut down on the amount of dairy used & keeps things a bit healthier. A traditional frosting recipe just requires powdered sugar, milk, butter, and vanilla.
    • I'm allergic to milk. Before I found a cashew cream cheese frosting I searched everywhere for a recipe without cheese and finally found one that was essentially maringue but cooked on the stovetop before spreading it on. This could also be an option
  • would like a substitute for eggs, thanks :-)
    • You can use mashed banana, flax eggs or even applesauce as a replacement for eggs when baking!
      • How much banana would you use in replacement for the eggs? Thank you! Can't wait to try these!
        • Generally, 1/4 cup of mashed banana can be used in place of one egg. This will, of course, give the dessert a mild banana flavor depending on how many bananas you need to use.
  • I made these yesterday, out of curiosity. They were delicious and very moist. I spiralized the beets, then placed them in a food processor, for mincing. The beets provided a lot of moisture and richness. The only thing I would do differently, next time, is make a low-fat reduced sugar cream cheese frosting. The cashew cream was good, but not as flavorful as I would like, but I understand the reasons for using the cashew cream. I would definitely make these lovelies again.
    • That's great to hear, Tamra! Use whatever frosting you'd like - we're sure they'll be delicious!
  • Yay for sneaky veggies! And I thought that zucchini and carrots were the only "dessert-acceptable" veggies to include! Anyways, these cupcakes look so decadent and delicious! Thank you for the comment about the flax eggs as well--this is so helpful!
    • Isn't this fabulous?! We LOVE sneaking veggies into foods in new and interesting ways. We're so glad you like these!
  • I tried this recipe and unfortunately it was not super tasty. Just wanted to let you know the recipe may need to be played around with a bit, as these were pretty bland. They also may have been better with finely chopped beet spirals vs. just chopped into smaller pieces (which I see someone minced them above in the food processor, that would definitely be worth trying!). Also, just a note that these are not sugar free as stated- maple syrup is still sugar. It may be more clear to state "refined-sugar free". Thanks!
    • Thank you so much for the feedback, Kim!! We appreciate you giving the recipe a shot.
  • Has anyone tried subbing swerve for the syrup? Keto here ?
    • We haven't tried it, but give it a try and let us know how it turns out!
  • They look and sound wonderful! I have a big bowlful of beet noodles. Can you tell me how I can measure a similar amount to use?
  • WOuld you please check the format of what happens when your recipes are printed...the image is spread way out across the page, and thus pushes the recipe itself on to a second page. Is there a possibility that you can make the image smaller so it doesn't take up so much paper? Thanks for your consideration.
    • Thank you so much for the feedback!! We appreciate it!