I finally decided to give you a little feedback ! well you got it! i love your site !!! no , really, its good…
(My favorite insult spam)
Last night, I made Chocolate Cake with Unappealing Ingredients. And yes, that is what I will be calling it in the future. It is delicious, and Jim agreed. Even the pre-schooler deigned to eat some. You should totally try it, because it is GOOD for you EVEN THOUGH it is chocolate cake. (That’s where the unappealing ingredients come in.)
The whole thing started because I had yet another batch of beets on my hands. I was going to go for Rösti: First Blood, The Crispening, but then I decided I couldn’t deal with another batch of flaccid purple latkes.
First I was going to make a yeast bread, but then I realized that the recipe would make 5 loaves, which seemed beyond our capabilities to consume, you know, by Christmas.
Then I remembered this chocolate zucchini cake Sarah posted a while back, which I keep making without the eggs in it and which it delicious. I figured beets have roughly the same consistency as zucchini, so I decided to take her original recipe and improvise.
Here’s what I did:
Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Unappealing Ingredients
Preheat oven to 375°, grease and flour one of those Bundt cake thingers.
In a bowl, cream together:
1 C sugar (the original calls for 2 cups, but I dialed it way back since beets are sweet)
3/4 C butter
Beat into the creamed butter and sugar:
3 eggs (I figured since I had so much beets, I’d better keep the eggs, since they’ll glue it all together)
Stir in:
1/3 C warm milk (I decreased the amount due to the juiciness of the beets. I might even have been able to leave it out altogether, I don’t know)
2 t vanilla
3 C beets, shredded (packed, generous cups) (this is more than Sarah’s recipe, but it’s how many beets I had, so there!)
In a big bowl, sift together (I have no patience for sifting. I just dump everything in):
1/3 C ground flaxseed
1/3 C ground almond meal
2-ish cups all-purpose flour
1/2-ish C whole wheat flour (I increased the grains/starches I added because of the amount of beets I had — this was a notably bigger cake than the zucchini one. That one rises about 2/3 up the side of my pan, but this puffed out over the top.)
2/3 C cocoa
3-ish t baking powder (Eliza was in charge of measuring this, but I wanted more than the original because of the increased volume. However much it was, it was fine.)
2-ish t soda (ditto)
1 t salt
1-ish t baking spice
1/2-ish t ginger
Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix to combine, so there are no little bubbles of flour. Pour equally into pans. This cake, before it bakes, is the most astounding raspberry-red color, and I was more than a little disappointed that as the chocolate baked and darkened, it lost its peculiar color. I was really looking forward to eating purple cake. So was Eliza. We got over our disappointment, though. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes, get paranoid that it’ll burn, dial it down to 360. Then fret that it won’t be done in time for you to leave for karate, and after 20 minutes, bring it back up to 375. It will take about 45-60 minutes, depending on how much you monkey with the baking temp en route.
seriously… you are killing me! I am a beet lover since way back in the day when my granny would peel, slice and boil the big boys, whomp some butter and salt on ‘em and it was chow time! The smaller beets would get pickled and LAAAAA! i miss my Granny and her beets.
I doubt that I will ever have access to enough beets to get to the point of making them dessert, but ya never know!
Comment by bon — July 26, 2008 @ 1:16 am
That’s hilarious, because it’s totally my method of baking anything. “Crap, it might burn!” “Oh no, now it’s not getting done…” “Eek! Maybe if I broil it for a minute?!?”
The last stage is the worst: “Carve out the cooked edges to eat while you microwave the rest.”
Comment by meghan — July 26, 2008 @ 6:36 am
I am so glad to hear I am not the only paranoid watcher of things cooking. I drive myself crazy. I think if somone offered me a piece, I would actually try it, in spite of my loathing of all things beety.
Comment by Jo in Utah — July 26, 2008 @ 10:50 am
I love beets too! Unfortunately, I am the ONLY person I know that does, so I try to keep my passion to myself, lol.
Stop by my blog when you get a chance. I have a treat for you!
Comment by Liz C. — July 26, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
OK, take a break from the soggy purple latkes and make yourself some roasted beets. They are candy. Peel, cut into uniform pieces about the thickness of your finger, toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper, place on greased, tin-foiled (optional) baking sheet and roast at 475 for 13-15 minutes, tossing them halfway through cooking. Let them get crusty on the edges. Sautee the greens (chopped, with the stems and/or some chard) in olive oil until softened. Add salt, pepper, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Add the roasted beets (and for color, you can roast some carrots too and add them), add some chunks of goat cheese, stir a little (or not. the cheese can be stirred in to make a kind of creamy sauce, or left in chunks). Not kidding, this is like candy. I made this and served it over Israeli couscous. Derek, not a beet lover, couldn’t get enough.
Comment by sarah k. — July 26, 2008 @ 8:34 pm
That sounds delicious actually. Maybe because my mom makes grape jelly out of beets and I know how good that is. It would have been great if it had stayed purple. Oh well!
Comment by Mama D — July 26, 2008 @ 8:48 pm
Bon, Liz, Mama D — I’m so pleased to discover beet-loving kindred spirits!
Meghan and Jo — Ha! And I thought *I* was the only one. That cracks me up.
Sarah, that sounds awesome — in past posts, you actually turned me onto roasting random vegetables it would never have occurred to me to roast, notably cauliflower. I’ll have to try beets, because that sounds good!
Comment by elizasmom — July 28, 2008 @ 8:57 am