Sweet Treat Friday – I put Spinach in the Frosting!

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Oh yes, yes I did!
I put Spinach juice in sweet creamy white frosting and made my kids eat it. You know what? They LOVED it! Even after I told them what they just ate. Besides who would turn a cupcake down? I won’t, that’s for sure.

Natural food colorings are easier than you think. I found this one through Pinterest awhile ago and just so happened to need to today. We don’t eat foods or drinks that come with any food coloring, or at least for the most part. Using everyday vegetables you can add coloring to cakes, even frosting or baked goods. The great post about using these items can be found here on Itsy Bitsy Foodies. The post is for adding it to the cake batter, but I applied the same idea to the frosting, perfect results.

I used a basic White Creamy Frosting recipe then added 1 tablespoon of Spinach juice at a time till it started to take on the color I needed. More white powdered sugar was needed to off set the liquid but it came out perfect. Even better, my kids seriously had no idea there was even the hint of a vegetable in their treat today. Not a single complaint 😉

Creamy White Frosting (From better Homes and Gardens)
Ingredients

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon extract (you can use Orange, almond or lemon, I just used french vanilla)
4 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk
*If coloring use 1 tablespoons Spinach Juice at a time. Mix/beat well between additions unti it becomes the color you want.
*more powdered sugar if it becomes too watery.

Directions.
Beat shortening , vanilla and extract with electric mixer. Slowly add half the powdered sugar in beating well between additions. Add milk, one tablespoon at a time in between adding the remaining sugar. If coloring add in one tablespoon of the spinach juice and beat well till mixed, add more till it becomes the color you want, Add and adjust the powdered sugar till the frosting is to your liking, if needed.

 The frosting doesn’t taste like spinach, though I bet if you kept adding it in to make it darker it would have more effect on the flavor.
  With the added juice it really leveled the sweetness of the frosting so in my opinion it came amazingly well. I would love to try the other vegetable juices in baked items to see how they stand up.

Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day !