Colour for red velvet cupcakes?

donna23, Apr 10, 6:56pm
I have a divine recipe for red velvet cake/cupcakes which my g/children love but the amount of red food colouring that goes into them (2 tablespoons) does concern me a bit. any suggestions as to what could be used instead! Thanks

olwen, Apr 10, 7:43pm
The food colouring has put me off making red velvet cake.It would taste as good, but not look the same without the colour.

gardie, Apr 10, 8:23pm
I use the gel colour that is used in cake decoration - you can also get a powder.The colours are much more concentrated though so not sure though if it means that using less makes much difference.Agree with olwen that the taste would not differ without colour.How about just a small amount of colour and have pink velour cupcakes!I think they are a bit overated - probably because the colour makes them look so impressive.We do 'eat with our eyes' after all.

carriebradshaw, Apr 10, 8:59pm
I have seen a few recipes where instead of using the red colouring they used beetroot to colour the cake.