Nothing Beats Chocolate Beet Cake!

Sounds strange, doesn't it? Don't knock it till you've tried it. The beets in this recipe make the cake moist even after it's been on a cake plate for a couple of days. This is so rich you'll want to make it for sharing with friends.

With the beets and the dark baking chocolate, one could almost say this is a health food. You know, polyphenols and all that.

I got the idea from a recipe in More magazine in the November 2010 issue, and adapted it to suit my baking style. The recipe is intense, but worth the work. It uses fresh beets that need to be cooked ahead of time.

I'm working on developing a quicker version using canned beets. Once I have that, I'll add it to this post. The frosting in this version is homemade, but you can use canned frosting if that suits you.

Image by Suzanne Pitner, Dinner Magic

Nothing Beats Chocolate Beet Cake Recipe

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup of cocoa powder to dust the pans

2 medium beets, boiled till tender then cooled and peeled

2 sticks of real butter, unsalted

2 1/4 cups of granulated sugar

5 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 squares of dark baking chocolate

2 1/2 cups of enriched flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/8 teaspoon of salt 

Crisco butter flavored shortening, or extra butter for the pans

Parchment paper

Making the cake:

Butter two 9 inch cake pans with Crisco or butter.

Cut circles of the parchment paper to fit in the bottom of the cake pans. Or better yet, try these pre-cut 9-inch rounds from Regency. How cool are those?
Lay the cut out circles in the pans and butter the parchment paper.

Sprinkle cocoa powder over the pans and shake to knock out the excess powder.

Set the pans aside and preheat the oven to 355 degrees.

Puree the cooked and cooled beets with a ricer or food processor. Measure two cups.

Soften the butter in the microwave till it can be mixed with the sugar.

With a hand mixer, blend the butter and sugar on high speed till fluffy.

Continue blending and add the eggs, one at a time.

On low speed, blend in the beets and vanilla.

Melt the baking chocolate in the microwave by heating 20 seconds, then stirring, and repeating until it is creamy.

Add the chocolate to the mixture and blend.

In another bowl, mix the cocoa, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

I used a sifter to make sure my cocoa powder was smooth.

One cup at a time, add the dry ingredients to the beet mixture, blending well after each addition.

Place the batter in the two pans.

Bake 40-45 minutes. The cake is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Now on to the frosting for the Chocolate Beet Cake!

Cream Cheese Chocolate Frosting

4 ounces of cream cheese

1 stick of butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups of powdered confectioner's sugar

1/2 cup of powdered cocoa

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Mix together the wet ingredients.

Sift together the dry ingredients.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients one cup at a time.

This frosting recipe made just enough to frost the cake with barely enough left over to lick the spoon before washing it. Perfect!

Frost the top of one layer.

Place the next layer on top and frost the top of it.

Frost the sides of the cake.

Use the rest of the frosting to fill in any thin areas. Thick frosting is yummy.

The picture below is of a slice while the cake is still warm. See the gooey frosting? It firmed up overnight, and was just as tasty the next day.

Image by Suzanne Pitner, Dinner Magic