Chocolate (Beet) Cake

My daily contribution to my year long "Around the House" photo project. 365 photos. Blogged here.



Somewhere in my traipsing around the internet, I landed on a Flickr picture of a gorgeous chocolate cake. A chocolate beet cake. Now, I like chocolate, I like beets, and I like trying novel combinations. Clearly this cake was made for me! Sadly, most people don't have the same reaction I do. Most people have said "BEETS? Eugh!" So here's my suggestion: don't tell them. Just say it's a lovely chocolate cake. They'll never be able to guess what the secret ingredient is and you can spare yourself a lot of heartache. On second though, go right ahead and tell them, that way you can keep this cake all to yourself.

Makes: One 10" bundt cake

Ingredients
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups pureed cooked beets
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Note: If your beets aren't already cooked, steam and then puree them first

PREHEAT oven to 375F
LIGHTLY COAT 10" bunt pan with grease and flour (or a cooking spray that includes flour)

CHOP chocolate into small pieces
ADD chocolate and 1/4 cup oil to microwave safe bowl
MICROWAVE for 30 seconds
STIR
CONTINUE alternating stirring with 5 second bursts in the microwave until chocolate is completely melted and oil is throughly integrated

BEAT sugar and eggs until fluffy
BEAT in oil, chocolate mixture, beets and vanilla
ADD flour, baking soda, and salt
STIR until just mixed

POUR batter into prepared pan
BAKE until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (about 45 minutes)

LET COOL
INVERT onto serving platter

FROST as desired, or dust with powdered sugar

My Thoughts
1. The beets gave this cake a nice depth of flavor, but it's more pronounced just after baking. Over time, it begins to taste more and more like just regular chocolate cake. It's very subtle though--my hubby couldn't taste any difference at all.

2. The cake holds together well and is very moist. Were beets in season all year long, this could easily become a go-to chocolate cake recipe.

3. I have issues with pureeing (more on that at some other time) so my puree was fairly chunky, however the beets cook into the cake, so we only found a few small chunks. The smoother you can get it the better, but a few small chunks will probably never be noticed.

4. The cake is, sadly, not red (although the batter has a nice maroon tinge to it). It seems like there could be potential here to make a red velvet cake without bottles of food coloring, but I'm not quite sure where.