All Natural Dye for Red Velvet Cupcakes??

[soufflegirl]

So I just recently attempted creating red velvet cupcakes and tried to use beet powder as a substitute for red dye. The cupcakes came out pretty good, but they were brown in color and had a thick texture (which I'm assuming came from the beets turning into more of a pulp). After doing some research, I found out that beet dye is really only good for frosting because the specific compound in beets that make them red (which is a different compound from, say, raspberries) actually creates brown discoloration at high temperatures. After reading this, I gave in and used the artificial dye we had sitting in our cabinet. The cakes came out great (though still slightly dark, but I suspect I added too much cocoa powder), but I was wondering if there are any natural dyes that people have used for red velvet? The whole reason I tried to go natural is because the ingredient list on the red dye was downright terrifying, and I prefer to bake organically.

 

[Meknoclone]

Have you tried using raspberry juice? You'll have to adjust your recipe for the extra bit of liquid but it might work.

 

[Ellyn]

I've been wondering about using real red beets to color red velvet, too, since that's what was the coloring originally. Thanks for sharing! What sort of cocoa powder did you use? Because I also heard that the acidity in the buttermilk and something in the baking soda could combine to make the cocoa powder more red, although it's more of a mahogany red, which isn't necessary or effective if it's been Dutch processed.

Or maybe supremely bright coloring is just an inevitable sacrifice for natural and organic cooking/baking methods? We're just so used to seeing and eating very artificial things.

 

[Meknoclone]

I haven't been able to get my foods the bright color without the artificial food coloring. But I'm okay with that. And I tell people my food won't have the those nasty colorings in them. They don't seem to care once they eat them. =]

 

[NThomas]

You may want to be careful substituting the red dye, because believe it or not red dye does have a taste to it . Using something different might change the taste of your cake. That being said who knows changing things up could make your cake taste even better.

 

[soufflegirl]

@Ellyn: I just used Hershey's unsweetened cocoa. I also heard about the buttermilk reaction thing which is what made red velvet so interesting to me! I haven't tried it without food coloring to test it though. When I looked up more info, I found that red velvet is just Devil's food cake with red dye. So I'm not sure if the buttermilk thing is real or not.

@Meknoclone: I haven't tried raspberries! I came across them as a dye substitute but I didn't want to change the flavor so I went with beet powder (which ended up changing the flavor anyway :/ ). I do think I'm going to try raspberries though.
Also like @NThomas said, red dye can give a flavor to your food especially if you have to use large amounts (like in red velvet). That being said, I just try to put slightly less coloring than it asks for. But I noticed that when I used the red food coloring there was a different taste, almost like a "bright" note in the flavor (it's the best way I can explain it). I had my mom and sister test it and my sister agreed that there was a different taste in the cupcakes. We all thought they tasted good anyway but we think the taste was the red dye.