Chocolate Beet Cake

[Crossposted from Squashmush]

This morning my dear friend, Erika, and I attempted making Chocolate Beet Cake. The process is fantastic. Boiling Beets, getting the amazingly strong color all over your skin and having to be careful not to wear white.



It’s great. Beets are such a neat, royal veggie. Erika had eaten beet cake before ( I, on the other hand, was a B C virgin) and well, each time she’d had some before it tasted a little less like, well, beets.

I think we over did it on the beets (we used 3 HUGE ones and after blended it probably made a bit more than the two cups that recipe called for.) But other than that the recipe is great and the texture and richness were yummy. If nothing else, its cool to be able to make a cake with beets.

Chocolate Beet Cake
from John Peterson’s Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables

3-4 medium beets READ ABOVE COMMENTS ON THIS MATTER
butter and flour for preparing the pan
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 c. mild-flavored vegetable oil
3 eggs
1¾ c. sugar
1 T. vanilla extract
1½ c. all purpose flour
½ c. whole wheat pastry flour
2 t. baking soda
¼ t. salt
powdered sugar for dusting

1) Scrub the beets with a vegetable brush and trim roots. Trim stems and save greens for some other use. (I’m not sure what other use, but I’m working on it.) Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the beets. Boil for 20-30 minutes, or until the beets are tender and the skins slip off easily. Let the beets cool a little, the slip the skins off under cold water and then purée the beets in a blender or food processor. You should have about 2 cups of beet purée.




2) Preheat your oven to 375°F. Butter and flour a Bundt pan and set it aside. (This is where I went wrong — I followed the original instructions to coat the pan with oil (!) and did not abandon ship even when I noted that the oil was pooling in the bottom of the pan rather than coating the whole interior of the pan. Use butter; it sticks.)

3) Fill a medium saucepan about halfway with water and bring the water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and set a heat-proof bowl over the simmering water. Place the chocolate and ¼ c. of the oil in the bowl and heat, stirring frequently, just until the chocolate melts.

4) Combine the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Slowly beat in the remaining oil, the chocolate mixture, beets, and vanilla.



5) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt. Gently stir the flour mixture into the egg and chocolate mixture until just combined.

6) Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.



Carefully remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool completely before sprinkling with powdered sugar to serve.