Make a cake, that's what!
I had someone give me a large paper sack full of red beets one time. I love beets. I canned some of them. I baked some of them, in Lemon Garlic Beets, I put them in salads, made Root Vegetable and Greens Soup, and I still had some beets leftover. Someone suggested a Chocolate Beet Cake. I said, "What???" I'd never heard of such a thing in all my nearly 70 years (at that time) of life!" But as I Googled, I found many recipes for Chocolate Beet Cake out there, so color me shocked!
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| Chocolate Beet Cake |
Okay, all that is well and good, but I am not personally over fond of chocolate. Chocolate cakes (I eat them occasionally, not at all often) or chocolate ice cream (I really dislike chocolate ice cream), um, no thank you. I wondered, "Is there a cake made with beets that does not include chocolate?"
At the time I created this cake, and searching for recipes in existence, the pickings were mighty slim. Most cakes made with beets, and this still holds true, having done a cursory search just now, have chocolate as an ingredient. As an observation, when I did make the Chocolate Beet Cake originally, the batter was a lovely dark red. Once baked, however, the color was just simply that of a chocolate cake - no particular red color left as "evidence," making it something my husband, a confirmed beet-hater, truly enjoyed.
And so, I hoped this would hold true if I made a cake without the chocolate to hide the evidence of beets as an ingredient. My thought process was to go with a spice cake. We both love spice cakes, my Prune Spice Cake being one in particular I have made fairly often. The prunes give it a bit more depth of color, but a spice cake on its own is still darker than any white or yellow cake. I proceeded with the idea of a Beet Spice Cake.
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| Beet Spice Sheet Cake |
My instinct payed off; there was absolutely no evidence of pinkness in the final cake. Looking back at the recipe (I never stop tweaking, even with my own recipes!), I used some of my Mocha Spice Blend II, but that gave me the idea of maybe just adding in some instant expresso powder, maybe 1 to 3 teaspoons, depending on how much you love coffee flavor! If a fine powder, this can be added with dry ingredients. If it is in crystal form, then mixed with a tablespoon of water to melt first and added with the eggs and oil would work.
Beet Spice Sheet Cake
Makes one 18 x 24-inch sheet cake, or one 8 or 9-inch round, two-layer cake
1 cup pureed, cooked beets (about 3 medium beets)
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| Beet Spice Sheet Cake |
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons allspice
2 teaspoons Mocha Spice, optional (or substitute your favorite Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix)
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
¾ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup ground pecans or walnuts
Boil the whole beets in water to cover for 45 minutes to an hour, until easily pierced with a fork. Cool completely. This can be done a day earlier. Peel the beets and puree finely in a food processor, food mill, or on a small holed grater.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or spray with cooking spray a sheet pan (about 18 x 24-inches, with a rim at least ½-inch high). Line the pan bottom with parchment and spray again with cooking spray. Set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, allspice and Mocha Spice blend. Separately, whisk together the vegetable oil, eggs, both sugars and vanilla extract. Pour the liquid ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir well until all the dry ingredients are moistened, then fold in the ground nuts. Pour the batter into the prepared sheet pan and spread batter evenly. Bake the cake for about 13 to 15 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.
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