...chocolate and beetroot cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting

The last few days I've been visiting my parents. My Mum was 70 (!) last Thursday although I'm sure she'll not appreciate me telling you that... She doesn't look it though so I'm hoping I got those genes. Anyway, I love visiting them at this time of year more than any other because of the wonderful fresh produce I'm given to bring home with me (again I'm not sure I'm meant to say that...) My brother-in-law, Leigh, is also working a marvel on his allotment so this trip was particularly lucrative with broad beans, peas and beetroot from him, and cucumber, carrots, courgettes, potatoes and strawberries from my Dad. The broad beans I double podded and mixed with freshly grated ginger, garlic, chilli, lime juice and zest and prawns then served this with fresh boiled beetroot and flat potatoes (my nephew's name for saute potatoes!) for dinner which was delicious (sorry I ate it before I managed to photograph it!). You'll get to see what I make with some of the other ingredients in the next few days.
The truly fun baking project today though was chocolate and beetroot cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting. I used the recipe from allrecipes website with a minor modification in that I only used 240g sugar as I was concerned that if I used the full amount, with the vanilla buttercream frosting they would be too sweet, plus I had sunflower oil in the cupboard so used this instead of vegetable oil.
It was a really simple recipe to follow. After boiling and peeling the beetroot, I left it to cool then blitzed it in my food processor with the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. It came out the most beautiful colour!

 

 Then all the dry ingredients were mixed together...

 The wet and dry ingredients were combined and put into the cupcake cases...

I did the Ina Garten trick of using an ice-cream scoop to put the mixture in the cases. It works so well.

They were baked at 180 degrees C for 22 minutes and came out of the oven looking like this!

After cooling for around an hour, during which I made my vanilla buttercream frosting...

...the two came together to make these beauties!! 

Really impressed with the recipe. Not sure this picture really demonstrates it that well but they were beautifully light and very moist inside.

I'm pleased I reduced the amount of sugar in the cakes, with the sweetness of the frosting it would have been too much for me if I'd have used the amount stated in the recipe.

I now have a couple of days of annual leave and some lovely homemade treats sitting in my 'fridge ready for me to enjoy!