Wee Feast

“What the heck is beet cake?” I can hear you asking. It’s exactly what it sounds like: instead of using oil or applesauce or sour cream, you moisten a cake with pureed beets. (Confession time: the beets I had were rather small, so I had to top off my beets with applesauce.) I boiled and pureed a few beets, mixed up a shockingly magenta batter, baked, and let it cool as I went about my Sunday. The finished product had no color, odor, or texture reminiscent of beets. Despite all this, I’m quite picky, and I waited for two friends to pronounce the cake delicious before I would dig in. They were right!

The recipe, adapted from Straight From The Farm:

Ingredients

1 1/2 sticks room-temperature butter
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar (I used light)
3 eggs at room temperature
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
2 c. pureed beets (I used a combination of pureed beets and cinnamon applesauce)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (possibly 1/4 tsp. cinnamon too)
powdered sugar for dusting once cooled

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease and flour a bundt pan (I used shortening).
2. Using a stand mixer or a bowl and wooden spoon, cream together butter and brown sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Add vanilla, beets, and chocolate.
4. Stir in flour, salt, baking soda, and nutmeg. (Note: if you don’t use flavored cinnamon apple sauce like I did, the original recipe calls for the use of a little ground cinnamon. You should add it in at this step).
5. Pour into bundt cake pan, and bake for 50 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes or so, then allow to cool fully on a wire rack. Top with powdered sugar.

The resulting cake is a cross between a chocolate cake and a spice cake. It has a great deal of moistness and a mild flavor, with a large, fluffy crumb.