Chocolatey Beet Cake for Secret Recipe Club
So I owe you an apology.
For not keeping up with the blog, for not cooking and for just not being inspired lately. I feel like I've been saying this a lot over the last few weeks, but well...it is what it is.
I arrived home from a week (!!) in Las Vegas on Friday evening. In case you haven't been to Vegas before (or haven't stayed longer than 2-3 days), a week is a looooooooong time to be in Vegas. When a week feels like one really long day, it just gets very old very fast. All in all, it was a successful week, but I'm not going to lie...I definitely could use a couple more days of recovery time!
Oh and then there's this pretty chocolate cake. You're wondering how that fits into the story, right?
Upon arriving home, I realized that Monday (ahem, today) would be the Secret Recipe Club reveal day for Group C! And so I knew I had to get cooking fast in order to make one of the delicious recipes from Witchy Kitchen, my blog assigned for this month. Carrie writes Witchy Kitchen and has made it into a vegetarian blog. She loves cooking and has an adorable daughter. Her blog is simply lovely, so please be sure to head over and check it out!
Each month, The Secret Recipe Club, founded by the lovely Amanda, pairs a blogger with another blog. The blogger then chooses one recipe to cook or bake and reveals it as a surprise on a designated day. I like. A special thanks also to Angie @ Big Bear's Wife for playing hostess in Group C!
So the cake.
When I spotted this cake on Carrie's blog, I knew I had to give it a try. I had heard of making cakes with beets and always wanted to try it. With her gorgeous photos and beautiful video, it was enough to seal the deal. So for Father's Day, I made this pretty little beet cake! It smelled of heavenly chocolate, making our entire apartment smell heavenly too. And it was incredibly moist. And delicious.
And you'll notice there's no frosting to speak of. I kind of like it that way. Let the cake shine! Not to mention that I absolutely adore that Carrie used powdered sugar on top. So beautiful, so chic. It looks like it got a nice, fresh dusting of snow. Yum.
Chocolatey Beet Cake
*Adapted from Witchy Kitchen
1 1/2 C dark brown sugar
1 C butter, at room temperature
4 oz semisweet chocolate, melted
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 C beets, pureed (about 2 cans)
2 C flour
2 tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Grease a 10" springform pan with cooking spray w/flour (e.g., Baker's Joy).
Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a mixing bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the brown sugar and butter. Add melted chocolate and combine. Add one egg at a time, mixing until completely combined.
Add vanilla and beets and mix well. At this point, the batter will look a little funkdafied. It's ok. Keep going.
Sift flour, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt together. Add to beet batter and mix.
Pour into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Slice and serve with powdered sugar sprinkled all over the top!
Thanks to Carrie for this great recipe!
Questions of the Day:
Do you ever sneak in some vegetables when baking?
I love carrot cake and zucchini bread!
How did you spend Father's Day?
25 Comments | June 18, 2012 | Share Article | Email Article | tagged Secret Recipe Club | in Recipes Print Article | Permalink
Reader Comments (25)
ha! That's awesome! I made the same recipe this week from my assigned blog =o) Great minds think alike. Yours looks wonderful!
Ooh, I've made a black bean chocolate cake that was to-die-for, but never used beets. I totally wanna try this!
Beauitful choice for SRC! I love the combination of beets with chocolate and the powdered sugar like you mentioned gives it such a elegant and chic touch.
What a great way to sneak some veggies in! This looks tasty!
I have seen the use of beets in cakes before, and always wanted to try it - this didn't help :-)
I'm so glad you tried this recipe! I got it from one of the beautiful movies made by Tiger in a Jar.
Yes, big fan of cakes without frosting (or only frosted on top and between layers), tres chic :) Yours looks amazing!
Very nice! One of my favorite cakes is a chocolate beet cake, but I call it "clandestine chocolate fudge cake" so people don't freak before they try it-lol. It really makes a nice fudgy cake! Love this one without frosting, very elegant!
a "Fancy" restaurant serves a chocolate beet cake and everyone raves about it. I'll have to try this! Great SRC pick.
you would never know they were made with beets~! These are awesome and perfect for kids! Making them soon for my kids blog
What a gorgeous, dense cake! I'll put it on my 'to make' list C:
Delicious!
I have really got to jump on this beets in cake bandwagon...looks ahhhmazing!
Sounds and looks delicious!! Great choice for SRC. Glad to be in Group C with you. :)
I love chocolate and I love beets. This cake has to be wonderful. Great SRC pick!
I love adding beets to chocolate brownies...your cake looks amazing!
What a deliciously moist looking cake. I'm interested to give it a try ,I've never baked with beets.
If you haven't already, I'd love for you to check out my group "A" SRC entry: Candied Popcorn.
Lisa~~
Cook Lisa Cook
I like to think of fewer posts in the summer as summer break. :)
I rarely bake "healthier" sweets - since I bake so infrequently, I go all out!
A week is definitely a long time to be in Vegas! I'm not much of a gambler, and like the people watching and sight-seeing...but only for so long. In the summer especially, I like zucchini bread. And I could definitely get behind the beets in this cake!
Two beet cakes this month two (as well as to zucchini crisp posts). This sounds and looks amazing!
I sneak zucchini and squash into tons of stuff!
These muffins are a great example.
http://luvwhatyoudo.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/blueberry-lemon-muffin/
They are awesome!
I have never tried beets before, but that cake looks fantastic!
Ahh, nice to be in SRC with you! Nice recipe pick, by the way. The cake looks so fudgy - I never would have guessed it was made with beets!
If you stay that long in Vegas again, I definitely recommend getting out of the city, there are so many awesome sites a short drive away! My in-laws live there and we visit pretty frequently.
And this cake looks fantastic! I've tried black bean brownies which are pretty amazing, I will need to try it out!
what an interesting and lovely mix of beets and chocolate, Rachel And I love your picture in the sidebar,very pretty :)
I have always wondered about beets in a cake! I love beets and cake! I agree, I love frosting, but the powdered sugar is sweet simplicity!
Yum!!!!