I made a good beet cake this weekend! I’d tried once before, but it was a bit earthy. We gave away our farmshare beets after that, but when we got more in this week’s farm share, I thought I’d give beet cake another try. We spent the day yesterday with some ND friends out in Wheaton, and I’d volunteered to bring a dairy-free dessert. So I got the ingredients (and a couple df brownie mixes as backup) and did some tweaking to the recipe. Two big improvements were boiling the beets until they were super soft and pureeing them in the blender until there were absolutely no chunks. And I added two cups of mini chocolate chips to the original recipe (more chocolate is always a good thing, and mini chips spread even further) and put on the glaze from my chocolate chip pound cake recipe. (Note–the glaze does NOT set well with dairy-free margarine and chocolate chips and rice milk, but if you use the original ingredients as listed here, it will harden.) I tested from the bottom as this was cooling, and I knew it was a winner, worthy of taking to friends. The beets really just add a lot of moisture and no “dirt” flavor. Here’s my tweaked recipe:
Chocolate Beet Bundt Cake
1 cup butter or margarine, softened, divided
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
3 eggs
4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
2 cups pureed cooked beets
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups mini chocolate chips (Whole Foods sells Guittard brand chips which are dairy-free in their bulk section.)
In a mixing bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and brown sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Melt chocolate with remaining butter; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Blend chocolate mixture, beets and vanilla into the creamed mixture (mixture will appear separated). Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture and mix well. It will look magenta and taste beety. Don’t worry-it doesn’t stay that way. Stir in mini chocolate chips. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 375 degrees F for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Do not overcook or it will dry out. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Cool completely. (For some reason, you can still taste/smell an earthy/beety smell while it’s still warm. I hate beets but couldn’t taste them at all once it was cool.)
Glaze:
¼ cup chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. butter
1¼ cup confectioners’ sugar
3 Tbsp. milk
½ tsp. vanilla
Melt chocolate chips and butter. Whisk in confectioners’ sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Working quickly, drizzle over cooled cake.
The cake looks delicious!!! I should try this…
Thanks for the recipe–I’m trying this today. I love beets, but even I have had my fill of them this year…
Whoa there, Emily… that cake sounds GREAT! It looks super moist and chocolatey in the picture. Yum!