Recipe Station

This first dish comes from our friends over at Heartbeet Kitchen. They came up with this delicious way to incorporate beets into buttercream frosting and as someone who normally steers clear of beets I seriously hesitated at the thought of eating this one, yet to my surprise it was fantastic! Here is what you will need to make one two-layer six-inch cake.

Chocolate Beet Cake

Ingredients:

3 small to medium beets
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
7 Tbsp butter softened
1/2 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (or you can substitute 205 grams Cup4Cup Gluten-Free Flour )
2 large eggs
1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp buttermilk
1 t vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp espresso powder (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Thoroughly wash beets under running water, and trim their leaves, leaving about 1/2 inch of stem.  Place clean beets in a piece of foil.  Drizzle with just a bit of vegetable oil.  Seal up foil.  Place on a baking sheet in the oven.  Roast until beets are tender when pierced with a knife, about 1 hour.

Remove the beets from the oven.  Open the foil and allow beets to cool completely, then peel. Using a box grater, grate the peeled beets on the finest grating plane.  Measure 1/2 cup of grated beets for the cake and 2 tablespoons for the frosting. Set aside.

Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Use butter to grease bottom and sides of a 6 in round springform pan. Trace a piece of parchment paper so it is the same size as the bottom of the cake pan. Cut it out and place inside the cake pan. Butter the parchment paper.

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream together butter and sugars, beating on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, for one minute after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Once eggs are incorporated, beat in beets and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture. Beating on low speed, slowly add buttermilk. Once just incorporated, add the other half of the dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed until milk and dry ingredients are just incorporated. Cake batter will be thick, not pourable like other cakes you may have made. Bake for 45 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean and sides are slightly starting to pull away from pan. Let cool for 5 minutes, then unmold from pan and set on wire cooling rack. Let completely cool.

I used this vanilla buttercream frosting recipe, reserved 1 cup of it and set aside. I then beat in the two tablespoons of reserved grated beet into the remaining frosting and set aside. I cut the cake in half, spread the white frosting on top of one half, placed other half on top and proceeded to frost the rest of the cake with the pink stained frosting. And then I made a heart with chocolate sprinkles. 🙂

Up Next: The Perfect Carrot Cake

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