Vegan Beet Cupcakes with Chocolatey Cream Cheese Frosting

It all started with this week's Good Food Box. It contained a huge bag of yummy looking beets, so I thought I'd turn them into a salad. After a quick skim of all the beet-related recipes in my cookbooks, I made my choice: Beet Bundt Cake from The Vegan Table. Not quite a salad, but it still had beets!

I started boiling the beets, and preparing the rest of the ingredients, and then noticed that I couldn't find my bundt pan, and I hadn't boiled enough beets. Quelle surprise. Anyway, I went into improv mode, and whipped up some cream cheese frosting to boot! Roger, the Bear, and L'Anglais LOVED these. Ok, ok, I did, too. The beets are surprising, and give great taste, colour and substance to the yummy chocolatey-ness of this recipe. I will DEFINITELY bake with beets again!

The frosting was a first for me, and came out more than a tad runny. Once the cupcakes had been in the fridge for a while, though, it firmed up pretty well. It might be a good idea to chill the icing before laying it on.

I modified Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's recipe a fair bit, so I figured it would be okay to share it. Keep reading to see it!

Cupcakes:

1/2 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup puréed cooked beets

1 cup puréed apple grape blend - no sugar added! (I stole these from the bear... she never noticed)

1/2 cup melted chocolate chips

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsps. baking powder

pinch of salt

Frosting:

8-oz. package of vegan cream cheese (I used yoso). NB: I would never spread this on a bagel... it's way too sweet, and not very tasty. But it has worked WONDERS in cream-cheese type dips and in this frosting!

1/2 cup Earth Balance or other vegan butter

2 cups icing sugar

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. lemon juice

• Mix together oil & brown sugar. Add beets, apple-grape sauce, chocolate melted goodness, and vanilla. Mix well.
• Combine dry ingredients. Gradually add to wet mixture, until just combined.

• Pour into oiled muffin tin (makes 12) or into un-oiled tin with paper or silicone muffin cups!
• Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. 

• Cool completely before frosting.

• While cupcakes are cooking, start making the frosting!
• Beat the cream cheese and Earth Balance together, until fluffy, but not so long that it gets crumbly. 
• Add remaining ingredients and mix until well combined.
• Cool for 45-60 minutes.
• Spread, and enjoy!!!