Beetroot and Chocolate Cupcakes

Well I have no written this for a long time, things have been busy and if i'm honest I think I baked myself out a bit. Haven't been as excited about baking or blogging. I guess it has its ups and downs as does everything else in life. Any ways onto the Beetroot and Chocolate cupcakes..this combination has seemed a little odd to me but I have faith in the Bakery and their creations so we are giving it a whirl.

I cheated and bought pre-cooked and peeled beetroot as the blending up and mixing was enough for me. I started off puréeing it in my mini blender which could just about hold it all. Then it needed to be mixed with the eggs, then sunflower oil and vanilla essence and this is where I realised that the mini blender couldn't hold anything other than the beetroot. Had to swap over to my larger blender to finish this mixture off. Made it all up and then got going on the dry ingredients. Once they had been sifted together the puréed beetroot is added to it until all smooth and incorporated well.

Now the mixture is made up it goes into the cases and into the oven for 20 minutes. I managed to make 18 sponges out of this chocolate and beetroot mix. Whilst they were baking I made up the cream cheese frosting. This is the same as the frosting used on the Red Velvet cupcakes so I am a dab hand at making it. Used half the quantity of icing even though I made 18 rather than 12 cupcakes. The whole amount is just way too much and I end up with wastage, which is not what anyone wants...how can you throw away something so scrummy!

The cupcakes smelt great in and out of the oven. It reminded me of the Red Velvet cupcakes actually. They are chocolate with that something else behind it and this is what the beetroot ones seem to be too as well. Wont know until they have been tasted but I have my suspicions.

Onto the icing, did my usual thing, swirling with a little flick of the palette knife and they were done. A nice covering on all of them and a little left over in the bowl for me to lick..heehee!

After all that effort an immediate taste and cuppa was calling...and oh my goodness they are delicious. The beetroot cannot be tasted as its obvious flavour but it adds a wonderful depth to the Chocolate. The cream cheese pairs with it perfectly and these might have just overtaken the Red Velvet as the crème de la crème of cupcakes..strange I know but they are just too mmmm to resist.