You Can't Beet This Cake

Sorry about the title of this post. I had to do it.

So: beets. I don't know of many grocery stores that are struggling to keep these puppies on the shelves. And aside from the pickled or canned variety, I don't know many people that have tried fresh beets before. My first experience with beets came when I was making baby food for my daughter. I read that beets are chock full of folic acid, potassium, calcium, and antioxidants. So I roasted a pureed a few, and she really liked them, which I was happy about...until she sneezed while eating them one day and sprayed bright red beet bits all over the wall and floor.

Anyway, last week I promised to update you about a chocolate cake I was going to make that has beet puree as one of its ingredients. The recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, "Deceptively Delicious" by Jessica Seinfeld.

I wouldn't say this cake is healthy per se, but it does substitute white sugar for brown, canola oil for butter, and egg whites instead of whole eggs (or rather, one whole egg and two egg whites).

For those of you who have never seen beet puree, here's how it looks:

Such a nice deep red color! Sesame Street keeps reminding us to "Eat Your Colors!", so I know this has got to be good.

The rest of the cake ingredients were pretty standard. Semisweet chocolate squares, buttermilk, vanilla, flour, etc. The final batter was a burgundy color, although this picture gives it a pinkish hue:

The batter tasted delicious, and the final cake turned out to be nice and dense (which makes it easy to work with when it comes to icing).

One way this cake cuts calories is that it makes only one nine-inch cake instead of two. It suggests that you cut the cake layer in half and spread frosting between the layers and on the top. It was during my imperfect dissection of the cake that I was able to sample a small piece, and it was very good. It was not an overpowering chocolate flavor, and the beets were imperceptible.

The frosting uses reduced-fat cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and cocoa powder. Here is the final product:

As with most of the cakes I bake, I sent it off with Zach this morning to be (hopefully) devoured by the teachers and staff. But I didn't forget to print out a note that said, "Chocolate Cake, fortified with beets. Have your cake, and eat your vegetables. See you at the Wednesday Workout at 4:30 tomorrow."