Choco-Beet Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Remove stems and most of the roots from beets. Scrub well under running water until clean. Wrap beets in foil and roast in the oven until tender when poked with a knife, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let cool to room temperature.

Wearing a pair of gloves or plastic bags (so your hands don’t get stained bright red or orange!), remove the skin from beets. Carefully grate beets on a box grater to get 1 cup grated beets; set aside. Freeze the remainder for another use.

Lower oven temperature to 350° F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.

Place chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30-second intervals, stirring after each heating, until chocolate is melted, about 2 minutes. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in grated beets and mix until you reach an even, bright color. Beat in melted chocolate. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Fill prepared muffin cups about 2/3 full.

Place the muffin tin in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack then dust with powdered sugar or cocoa powder.

Special notes:

Kids will love peeling and chopping the cooked beets — just make sure you’re using gloves and a dark cutting surface so your little people and counters don’t turn bright pink or orange! Let your kids help count, measure and stir ingredients. An ice cream scoop helps to measure out the right amount of batter for each muffin cup and cut down on the mess.