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?