Looking to make a delicious Red Velvet Cake for someone special but don’t want to include a large amount of food coloring in your wonderful from-scratch cake? Here’s a Red Velvet Cake with no-dye that uses natural red coloring to give it a brilliant hue.
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All Natural Recipe for Red Velvet Cake No Dye
Red Velvet Cake is a classic. Visually stunning and with a unique flavor, it’s easy to see why it has become many people’s favorite. The only downside is that most recipes require a tablespoon or more of red food coloring. That’s a lot!
We try to stay as close to natural as possible around here, so I looked to a healthier source for that signature hue: beets.
Why Beets for a No-Dye Red Velvet Cake?
Beets have a gorgeous purple/red color, so deep and vibrant it almost seems unnatural! They are also full of healthy stuff like folate, manganese, and vitamin C, but really, it’s the color we care about here. After much research, it seems that the key to a naturally red cake using beets is acidity. I’ll save you most of the science talk, but without the proper acidic pH, the beets will turn brown. This means we need to incorporate things like vinegar, buttermilk, yogurt or citrus.
I used white wine vinegar, which has a 6% acidity, compared to regular distilled or apple cider vinegar, which is 5%, and orange juice. I also used baking powder instead of baking soda, as it has a higher pH due to the cream of tartar. (Baking powder is just a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar. Since cream of tartar is acidic, baking powder can be used without an additional acid to activate it. Recipes that use baking soda do so because there is an acidic element somewhere else in the ingredients, such as buttermilk or lemon juice.)
The final product is incredibly delicious. I actually said ‘wow’ out loud while standing in the kitchen after the first taste. I will be honest- I was not expecting much. I thought it would be too tangy from the vinegar and too earthy from the beets, but it is delightfully sweet! The chocolate flavor floats lightly, not too powerful, but definitely there, and the crumb is moist and dense, but not heavy.
This recipe for Red Velvet Cake – no dye is one you willdefinitelywant to try and keep!
I’ve always been scared to make red velvet cake because of the red food coloring added into it, so I did some research on the web for something that could be added in placement of the coloring. I stumbled upon this recipe and JUST made it. Oh I LOVE IT. 🙂 Thank you SO much. I will be making this cake again for my friends birthday who LOVES red velvet. Thank you!!!!!!!!
Rebecca, Little House Living reader
Roasted Beets for No Dye Red Velvet Cake
If your beets came with the leaves still attached, slice them off at the base. Wash the beets and wrap them in aluminum foil (no need to dry them; the water will help them cook).
Place the foil-wrapped beets on a baking sheet to catch any drips, and bake in a 400-degree F oven for 40-60 minutes or until a fork easily pierces their flesh.
Remove from oven and let cool. The skins should easily peel off. Chop the beets and puree them well (I used a food processor but I imagine a blender would work, too).
I just made these for my daughter’s first birthday as cupcakes and they turned out beautiful. Tip: Use frozen beets. I did a test batch with frozen beets I already had at home and we could not detect any beet flavor. When I made the second batch, I bought fresh beets and they definitely tasted earthy.
Crystal, Little House Living reader
Ingredients in Red Velvet Cake with No Dye
This recipe will make 2 9-inch layers to put on top of each other. You could also make this into red velvet cupcakes, if you prefer, instead of a layer cake. This cake is great for Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
- Cake Flour. If you don’t have any, just use all-purpose flour instead. You can also make this recipe with All purpose gluten-free flour.
- Cocoa powder. You need unsweetened cocoa powder, not hot chocolate, and not Dutch-processed.
- Salt. This will help enhance the flavor of your cake.
- Baking Powder. This provides the lift along with the eggs.
- Butter. You need a fair amount of butter for this recipe. If you want to save a little or need this to be dairy-free, use shortening instead.
- Vanilla Extract. This can be Homemade Vanilla Extract or store-bought.
- Sugar. You only need regular white sugar for this recipe.
- Eggs. You need quite a few for this recipe so it’s a good way to use up extra eggs!
- Milk. You can use a milk alternative for this recipe if you need to.
- Beet Puree. Use the instructions above to make this. Beetroot powder will not work in this particular recipe.
- Orange juice. This will give your cake great flavor!
- White Wine Vinegar. This will help the cake rise properly.
Step by Step Instructions for Making Red Velvet Cake
Step One: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9” cake pans.
Step Two: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.
Step Three: In another medium bowl, whisk together the milk, beet puree (see above for how to make it), orange juice, and vinegar.
Step Four: In the bowl of your stand mixer or in a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and vanilla together. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a third of the liquid ingredients, followed by a third of the dry ingredients, alternating wet and dry and mixing well after each addition.
Step Five: Pour into your prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops look firm. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting. See the frosting recipe below, or use my Cream Cheese Frosting.
Step Six: To frost this recipe for Red Velvet cake, I recommend spreading on a thin crumb coat, then placing the cake in the fridge for an hour to let it harden a bit. Remove the cake from the fridge and continue frosting. This will prevent red crumbs from mixing with the white frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting for Red Velvet Cake
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
Whip the cream cheese and butter until soft. Slowly add in the sugar. Add milk if necessary to achieve the desired consistency. You may need to use a hand mixer to do this. You can also check out our recipe for The Best Cream Cheese Frosting for a slightly different version.
To make this dairy-free, use vegan cream cheese and shortening instead of the cream cheese and butter. Use a milk-alternative instead of regular milk.
Thanks for the recipe ! I made this cake for my daughters 11th birthday today and it was very very good! It’s a dense cake, we substituted organic AP flour for cake flour. Not overly sweet with just a subtle hint of “beety” flavor. Beautiful, natural coloring ! She loved it.
Kathy, Little House Living reader
Looking for some more delicious cake recipes to try? You might want to check out this list of 30 Homemade Cake Recipes from Scratch!
Ready to make this? Print the recipe for Red Velvet Cake – No Dye below:
4.67 from 3 votes
Red Velvet Cake Recipe – No Dye
How to make your own red velvet cake from scratch without using artificial dyes!
CourseDessert
CuisineAmerican
KeywordRed Velvet Cake Recipe with No Dye
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 12 people
Calories 447 kcal
Creator Merissa
Ingredients
- 2 ½cupscake flour
- 3tablespoonscocoa powder
- 1teaspoonkosher salt
- 2teaspoonsbaking powder
- 1cupunsalted butter
- 1tablespoonvanilla extract
- 2 ½cupssugar
- 4eggs
- 1cupmilk
- 1cupbeet puree
- ½cup+ 2 tablespoons orange juice
- 3tablespoonswhite wine vinegar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9” cake pans.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.
In another medium bowl, whisk together the milk, beet puree, orange juice and vinegar.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a third of the liquid ingredients, followed by a third of the dry ingredients, alternating wet and dry and mixing well after each addition.
Pour into your prepared pans and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops look firm. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
To frost this recipe for Red Velvet cake, I recommend spreading on a thin crumb coat, then placing the cake in the fridge for an hour to let it harden a bit. Remove cake from the fridge and continue frosting. This will prevent red crumbs from mixing with the white frosting.
Nutrition Facts
Red Velvet Cake Recipe – No Dye
Amount Per Serving
Calories 447Calories from Fat 162
% Daily Value*
Fat 18g28%
Saturated Fat 11g69%
Trans Fat 1g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1g
Monounsaturated Fat 5g
Cholesterol 98mg33%
Sodium 325mg14%
Potassium 147mg4%
Carbohydrates 67g22%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 46g51%
Protein 6g12%
Vitamin A 615IU12%
Vitamin C 6mg7%
Calcium 87mg9%
Iron 1mg6%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Merissa Alink
Merissa has been blogging about andliving the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from theContact Page.
This recipe for Red Velvet Cake – No Dye was originally published on Little House Living in December 2014. It has been updated as of December 2023.
