Lori's Cupcakes (All-Natural Coloring)

Lori was recently(ish) commissioned to do cupcakes for a church event. Because of some of the research on dyes and their impact on some children (including observed behavioral changes in our daughter when she's had red dye #40), Lori's been only using natural colorings. Because this was a children's event, she saw it as the perfect opportunity to expand her available color palette of natural colors with the goal of also being tasty as frosting.  I think it was incredibly successful.  (See the Flickr collection.)

Here's what her research yielded:

• Pink: beet powder + strawberry purée
• Magenta: blackberry purée with powdered freeze-dried blueberries
• Purple: purple yam with natural cherry extract
• Green: fresh spinach with lime juice
• Orange: sweet potato with powdered freeze-dried oranges
• Yellow: mango in both powdered and reduced purée forms

We hope to someday turn her creative genius into a business.