Red Velvet Cakes w/ Strawberry Juice

I've never tried a red velvet cake before, but i love the deep red color of the cake, so i thought i will try making it. :) However, i hate the idea of using (yes..entire bottle!) of red coloring to color the cake red..it's like so unhealthy imo. So when Helen of Tartelette had the recipe of making red velvet cake with strawberry juice on her blog, i'm thrilled! :)

So, today, i tried baking cupcake version instead, however..my cupcakes didn't turn out as red as Tartelette on her photos..mine is more brownish pink..i wonder what i did wrong? I did cook my strawberry puree till quite thick though. i read the comments that others posted and they too said when they used strawberry juice, the cake didn't turned out as red for them too. Perhaps next time i should reduce the cocoa powder.

The cake itself is really plain and quite taste-less imo...but is light and moist in texture. The cake has to be eaten with some frosting i think. When i ate the cake with the cream cheese frosting, it tasted really good..and without it tasted blah...lol! Makes quite a lot of difference with the frosting and without imo.