My diy food dye attempt

Moo wants cupcakes for her birthday. Pink cupcakes. And while I informed her that wasn't an option, her Nonna told her it was. 

Look at those 4 cute gluten frees nestled on top!

Now I could be the bad guy here but we are not throwing a big birthday party this year.  That is, it will only be a couple hours long and will center around the celebratory dessert, not a meal (we blew that budget with our Back to the Future party a couple weeks ago. Note to self: $100 WILL NOT cover eleven ginormous pizzas from Papa Murphy's, but sometimes it is worth it to skip the math! ).

So here I am left. I could buy natural food dyes, or, since I have the time (and the farm fresh beets! ) I could make my own. 

Since we are a dye free household (and happen to have farm fresh carrots in the crisper!) I decided to make extra. I even dreamt up making variety packs of colors for friends and family who could use it, but then I realized JUST HOW MUCH WORK IT IS! 

I thin sliced the beets and spread them on the dehydrator. I thin sliced the carrots and parboiled them (twice! The first turned to mush as I got caught up in various other multitasks, one of which involved The Walking Dead, the second I was smart and set the timer ). Then I spread the carrots out too. I ran the dehydrator over night (full, of course! With sliced bananas, tired grapes, and leftover dicings of tomato that were bound to become forgotten in the fridge).

The next morning the carrots had all but disappeared and the beets were pleasant circles, roughly a quarter in size. 

I decided to grind the carrots first.  If a little orange got tossed in with the beets I figured it would go unnoticed, while the beets had the potential for a small flake to overtake the orange completely.

Moo quickly came to the rescue but these carrots were TOUGH to grind. So tough that the mill ended up busting :(

So, dear readers, what should I do next? I can attempt the food processor but don't want to bust that! Anyone have a high powered mill I can borrow? Or a circus freak living in their basement that wants to prove their machismo by grinding up my veggies mortal and pestle style?