Chocolate Beet Cake?!

We're trying a new tactic to increase our veggie consumption - Dandelion Organic Delivery. We get a rubbermaid container filled with mostly local produce delivered to our house every week. I'm mixed about it so far. Alex thinks it's too expensive for what you get and I was a little disappointed in the quality of the produce we got in our second delivery. The wax beans were tough (maybe they're supposed to be tough?) and the green onions and corn were old. I thought the first box was stellar though and I've had a great time trying to figure out how to use it all up. So we had beets tonight with our salmon. I cooked them in my new pressure cooker. I've been on the fence, wanting one and reading about them for a year or more. This past weekend Macy's had them on sale so I got one. 15 minutes to cook 5 large whole beets and then the skins easily peeled off. The kids wouldn't eat them so we had left overs. I made a Chocolate Beet Cake. I doubt very much the kids will eat that either. Sigh. It's very moist and looks like a red velvet cake. No one is going to fool a kid into believing this is a standard chocolate cake though. I can definitely taste the beets but they do pair well with the chocolate. I only used half the sugar. The recipe I used is below.

Beet Mash Chocolate Cake (adapted from Dave’s Dinners page 195)

2 cups beet puree (about 3 large beets) 2 sticks unsalted butter, melted 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar 3 eggs 1/2 cup warm water 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa 2 t baking powder 1/2 t salt

To make the beet puree, you can boil the beets for about an hour… or, do what I did and peel/trim them and bake them in foil with a little dab of butter for about an hour. I didn’t want to loose any of the beet goodness into boiling water, and I’m quite glad I stuck with this approach. However, if you are concerned about the cake being “too beety” feel free to boil them. Once the beets are soft and cooled, mash them with a potato masher or a food processor.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs and water, and mix until smooth.

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder together into a bowl, and then stir in the salt. Then, slowly add the dry ingredients into the butter/egg mixture. When it is smooth, fold in the beet puree.

Scoop the batter into a prepared baking pan. You’ll have to adjust your baking times for the size of your pan. For a small, 4-inch round, bake for about 30 minutes. Cupcakes are about 20-25 minutes. The Budnt cake from the original recipe called for 70 minutes. I recommend checking fairly frequently, and using the tooth-pick test to ensure the cake is set once the top starts firming up. Don’t over cook! You want the cake light but still moist.

Cool the cake on a wire rack before icing.