Healthy- Red Velvet Cupcakes (Neo-Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free)

Red velvet cupcakes (and red velvet cakes, and red velvet cookies, etc.) were made from beets long before red was an ingredient. But should you really put beets in your cupcakes?

Definitely! You can put vegetables of all kinds in lots of different kinds of deserts.

And for those on the Paleo diet or following the primal lifestyle, theyre gluten-free and grain-free, as well. What? No flour? Nope! Its just what we Paleo people do: we swap inflammatory grains for fresh vegetables. With a little creativity, you really can put veggies in anything. And when you take out the grains, youre left with a delicious desert that treats your body right.

For the lactose-sensitive, the ingredients for the cupcakes themselves are goats milk or its derivatives. Skip the cream cheese, too (I replace mine with pureed raspberries).

The beets in these red velvet cupcakes make them incredibly moist and give them a unique flavor. Unique in this case meaning they actually taste real instead of tasting like a sugar smack straight to your jaw. The honey or maple syrup add a touch more sweetness but dont mask any of the other complex, artful flavors. The butter, cocoa, chocolate (yay chocolate!) and cream cheese make these so rich theyll bring a tear to your eye.

After trying these red velvet cupcakes, you wont just like your veggies, youll love em.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups beet puree
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup 100% pure cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup goats milk
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 cup honey or maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons goat yogurt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 oz of a 100% chocolate bar cut up small

Toppings:

• Cream cheese
• Cacao nibs
• Cinnamon

*To puree the beets, cut the stems off of 2 to 3 unpeeled medium size beets. Wrap them in tin foil and bake in the oven at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Let cool. Slip the skin off of the beets. Puree them in a food processor or in a blender until smooth.

Mix all ingredients except for the toppings. Scoop the batter into paper cups set out in a cupcake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Let your cupcakes cool (or not). Top them with cream cheese, then sprinkle with cacao nibs and cinnamon.

Eat ravenously.

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