I wonder sometimes if people think food photographers and bloggers lead glamorous lives. I ponder this as I sit here writing that sentence with a crying baby on my lap, my hair mostly dry shampoo and I wonder if I put deodorant on today. Glamorous!? Yeah... no!!! While I may not be glamorous these gorgeous Mini Red Velvet Cakes with Cashew Cream Cheese Icing certainly are. I mean just look at them. They are delectable and moist with a sweet, soft crumb filled with a tangy and creamy cashew cream cheese filling that fits this cake perfectly. There is a secret ingredient in these cakes that make these cakes naturally red. No nasty dyes needed.  

I made these Red Velvet Cakes into mini versions because I love anything done small. Cakes especially. They just look way too cute and I think they add a touch of whimsy when made into miniature versions. I went into the garden and picked some jasmine foliage and flowers that were about the yard to decorate the tops of the cakes. I just love the trend of foliage and flowers being used for decorative purposes on cakes. While there wasn't a lot of flowers in our gardens at the moment I really loved the sculptural value of the Jasmine vine. It was all intertwined together and had these thin climbers at the end wanting to grab anything in their reach. I loved what they added to the images of these cakes. 

So I said there was a secret ingredient in these cakes and I will let you in on the secret. It's beetroot. It's what gives the cake it's reddish colour and adds moisture to the cake giving it it's lovely crumb. The beetroot has to be roasted or steamed until soft and blended with the wet ingredients before adding to the batter. I had to make this cake twice as the first time I added to much cocoa powder and it didn't have any red tinge to it. I reduced the amount of cocoa and the next time the colour came out pretty good. If you wanted a redder more vibrant red velvet cake I think you could try adding less cocoa than I have noted in the recipe. I was happy with the colour here but I think you could probably go redder if you wanted too. 

I wanted to add a little fun factor to these cakes and who I couldn't go past sparklers to just add that little bit of fun and dare I say glamour to these already special cakes. I may have had a bit of fun catching them through my camera as well. I was afraid I was going set the smoke alarm off in the house while the kids were napping lighting these sparklers up. It would not have ended well as the kids were only halfway through their nap. Thankfully that did not happen as I cracked the door open to let some air in to sweep away the smoke. Also trying to set alight three sparklers simultaneously before shoving them into the cakes and setting the camera to shoot was fun. I took me a couple of goes to get my setting right but I loved the final pics I managed to capture. So much fun!

Aquafaba is the cooking liquid that comes from cooking bean, chickpeas and legumes. It is the leftover liquid if you cook them yourself or the liquid in the canned beans, chickpeas etc you buy from the supermarket. Don't throw this amazing liquid down the drain. Make sure you save it and follow the instructions I did on the Black Food Bloggers Club of reducing the aquafaba down slightly to better mimic eggs. I found the liquid from my cans of chickpeas to be quite runny and this affected the result of my baked goods (looking at you vegan sponge) too much to put up with. So I stumbled across the Black Food Bloggers post about reducing the aquafaba liquid to help it mimic a egg replacement better. This magic liquid can make meringues and pavlova just like egg whites. Amazing.