When life gives you beets...

Make cupcakes!

Last week, I bought a ridiculous number of beets from the farmers' market. The guy was practically giving them away, how could I resist? Of course, one week later, they were still sitting in the fridge, soon to grow roots. 

Then I remembered this post from Joy the Baker (my hero) about a Beet Chocolate Cake. Because a cake is hard to pass out at the office and to neighbors (but very easy to stuff in my mouth), I turned these into cupcakes. (I seem to have this thing for making cupcakes with vegetables.)

The original recipe uses a cream cheese frosting. As I didn't have cream cheese, I went with a buttercream, tinted with beets.

It's quite a pink frosting. I think next time I'll use more beets and hopefully it will be a deeper pink. I'm a bit late to the Valentine's Day or Easter party. There must be some holiday coming up that this will be good for. Oh here we go, International No Diet Day! Hooray!

I also had a slight mishap with the frosting. I had to run an errand so I put it in the fridge. When I came home, it was as hard as a rock. I let it sit out for a bit and then tried to mix it again with the mixer. Ended up being oddly chunky. So I stuffed it into the cupcake instead. 

It's kind of like a Beet Ding Dong {chuckle}. It also only used up about 1/8 of the messed-up frosting. So now I have about a 1/2 pound of sweet beet butter that I need to figure out what to do with. 

Beet Chocolate Cupcakes with Beet Buttercream Frosting

Adapted from Joy the Baker and Sprinkle Bakes

Makes 24 cupcakes

(The original recipe calls for buttermilk, which I didn't have. I don't have milk either. Yogurt and almond milk, somehow it worked. If it sounds too unusual for you, then go with the buttermilk. But if you're making a chocolate cake with beets, most people are already thinking you're pretty unusual.)

2 medium beets, roasted and peeled

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup almond milk

(yogurt and almond milk can be replaced with 1 1/4 cup of buttermilk)

Using a box grater, grate the peeled beets, using 3/4 cup for the cupcakes and 2 tbsps for the frosting.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars with an electric beater until pale and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time, for one minute after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Once eggs are incorporated, beat in beets (hee hee) and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, mix together the yogurt and almond milk. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture. Beating on low speed, slowly add the yogurt mixture.  Once just incorporated, add the other half of the dry ingredients.  Beat on medium speed until milk and dry ingredients are just combined.  Try not to overmix the batter. Batter will be thick.

Line cupcake tins with liners. Fill each liner about half-full with batter.  Bake for 20 minutes (or when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean).  Remove cupcakes from the oven and set aside to cool.

Frosting

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut into small pieces

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 tbsp grated beets, mashed

In a medium saucepan, add sugar and flour with milk and cream. Over low heat, whisk the mixture periodically until it starts to boil and thicken, about 20 minutes.

Pour into medium bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat the mixture on high speed until cool. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter; beat until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beets and continue mixing until combined. If the frosting is too soft, transfer the bowl to the refrigerator to chill slightly, and then beat again until it is the proper consistency. If the frosting is too firm, place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until it is the proper consistency.

Frost cupcakes with piping tip of your choice. Because of the beet bits, the tip may get clogged, so a larger tip will be more desirable.

Kabocha Squash Cupcakes

Kabocha squash is probably my favorite squash of all. It's petite. It's easy to cook. It has a brilliant orange color. When I had the kabocha squash cake at Morimoto in Napa, I knew I had to make one. Basically, any recipe with pumpkin, you can replace with kabocha squash. I made a cupcake out of it for a little baking contest, and it was moist and delicious. While I didn't win any contests, I wouldn't hesitate to enter it again. (Although next time, I would give myself more time to make them more presentable!)

I used a cupcake recipe from Sprinkle Bakes. The cinnamon frosting that goes with this recipe is quite tasty too, but use this marscapone one I came up with if the thought of three sticks of butter kills you, cuz it will.

Kabocha Squash Brown Butter Mini Cupcakes with Maple Marscapone Frosting

Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

Cake:

3/4 cup unsalted butter 
2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 
3 tsp. ground cinnamon 
1 tsp. ground ginger 
1 tsp. salt 
1/4 tsp. allspice 
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 
1 1/2 cups kabocha squash puree (see below) 
3 large eggs 
1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line mini cupcake tins with papers.
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Cook, swirling the pan occasionally until the butter turns golden brown. Pour the browned butter into a small bowl and let stand until cool but not solidified.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt and allspice.  Set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk squash puree with the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and yogurt until well combined.  Stir in the flour mixture until just combined.  Whisk in the browned butter until well blended. 
5. Divide batter between cupcake liners.  Fill them about half full.
6. Bake cupcakes for 10-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Marscapone Frosting:

8 oz marscapone cheese

3 oz cream cheese

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 cup powdered sugar

The key I realized to making this frosting is to let all ingredients come to room temperature. Once the cheese and butter are nice and soft, mix with syrup using a hand mixer. Once smooth, slowly add the sugar while continuing to mix. Add to pastry bag, using your favorite piping tip.

Making Kabocha Squash Puree:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
2. Rub one kabocha squash with olive oil and place in oven
3. Cook for 10 minutes, remove from oven and let cool
4. Once cool, cut in half. Scoop out seeds. Slice each squash half into quarters.
5. Return to oven for another 15 minutes. 
6. Remove from oven and slice out meat with spoon. The skin is edible, so you don't have to peel it all off if you want to take a lazy route. And the fact that you're making your own squash puree proves you ain't lazy!
7. Puree squash in food processor. It is quite thick, so periodically adding a tablespoon of maple syrup will help to loosen it up.