my boo has taken up drawing recently. let me explain: he spends sundays enveloped in studying old masters paintings and at least once a week will set his alarm for 4:30 am, at which time he will sit at our table and draw for an hour before he goes off to work. the passion is infective. i was flipping through a book of peter paul rubens work and it hit me. chocolate beet cupcakes! inspired, i started baking immediately and thinking about the light, texture and contrast examined in rubens paintings. i wanted to make a frosting that would ignite those elements and voila (!) grape buttercream frosting.
- prep time: 20 min
- cook time: 30 min
- total time: 1hr 30
makes 18 cupcakes
cupcake ingredients:
- Oil and flour for preparing the pan
- 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 1 cup mild flavored vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar (or your favorite natural sweetener)
- 2 cups cooked pureed beets (3 medium beets)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
grape butter cream frosting ingredients:
1 cup of heavy cream
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 1 cup of melted unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp of grape jam/jelly
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- 1 tbsp of brown sugar
directions:
- whip butter and sugar until fluffy, slowly add in cream,vanilla,jam,and cinnamon, whip for 2 min, make sure all ingredients are mixed well and frosting is fluffy.
directions:
preheat oven to 375 F degrees.
partially fill the bottom of a double boiler with water and bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to simmer. put the chocolate and 1/4 cup of the oil in the top of the double boiler, (**very important to put the chocolate and oil into the pot at the same time!**) heat until just the chocolate melts; remove from the heat and stir until well combined.
Combine the and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Slowly beat in the remaining 3/4 cup oil, chocolate mixture, beets, and vanilla.
sift the all-purpose flour into a large bowl. stir in the baking soda and salt. gently stir the flour mixture into the egg and chocolate mixture just until the flour is mixed in. pour batter into cupcake pan.
bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
carefully remove cake from the pan and let cool on a rack. when completely cool, dust with powdered sugar.
