balance

I like beets. I like the translucent red-purple color they turn when you cook. I like eating them for breakfast and dinner. Before this week I have never eaten them, though, for dessert. Lauren brought her chocolate-beet cake into school early in the week, which was promptly consumed by a myriad of happy lab mates and fellow students, so I can't claim any originality on this one. :) Inspired, though, by cakespy's Valentine post on red velvet cake, I decided to use beets in mine.

I don't know about you, but my myriad of cookbooks remain strangely silent on the subject of red velvet, so I borrowed a recipe from Smitten Kitchen to try out. If you go look at the original, you'll note I omitted the mix vinegar with soda step. I've seen this a few times before, and my chemist side remains mystified as to why a recipe would call for taking a perfectly good leavening agent (which happens to be a base) and expose it to an acid before you ever put the soda into the cake. Bye bye lovely cake-leavening bubbles.

Obviously, despite the pre-reaction, doing this doesn't totally kill your cake--if it did no recipe would contain these instructions. Yet the original recipe called for almost twice the soda necessary for a cake with this amount of flour, probably to make up for leavening power lost. So, since we all aim not only to be better cooks but also smarter cooks, next time you see a cake recipe that suggests creating a fountain of bubbles before your soda is anywhere near your bubble trapping gluten network, think twice.

Here's my take:

3 1/4 c. cake flour (or all-purpose)
3/4 c. cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 c. canola oil
2 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/3 c. pureed roasted red beet
3 large eggs
1 T. (how red do you want it? add up to 6 T.) red food color
1 T. water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 c. buttermilk
1 tsp vinegar
1/4 cup melted dark chocolate

Method:
Oven: 350F
Cooking time: 30-35 minutes
Grease two 9" round cake pans, line with parchment, grease the parchment and then dust with cocoa powder. If you have 3 round pans, do that, but I only have two!

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Mix together canola oil, sugar and beets on low speed, add eggs one at a time, and beat until well mixed. Add red food coloring and vanilla to canola oil mixture, then alternately end flour/cocoa powder/soda/salt and buttermilk+vinegar, beginning and ending with flour. Finally mix in the melted dark chocolate. Bake until the cake springs back when you lightly touch it. Cool ten minutes, then remove from pan and continue cooling on a wire rack. Frost with your favorite frosting. I like cream cheese, although my make-it-simple side would also recommend Cool Whip because it looks so nice when you're done.

This, by the way, is phenomenal. The beets bring a sweet earthiness that complements the dark notes of the chocolate.

Now for the fun updates:
Chez Denise et Laudalino made a quinoa pudding, that unfortunately was not their favorite dessert ever (kind of like my yet-unposted kale experience--we win some and lose some). Luckily the exercise portion of the challenge is going better for them.

Lauren of genkitummy made a gorgeous and yummy (I tried it) chocolate cherry cake that should put the cake doctor to shame. She's rocking the running/swimming/biking and should be done soon!

Karen of do better also made a quinoa pudding, luckily hers worked out well. In addition, she's completed 17 miles of running!

I've been away from an internet connection for the last four days, so I don't know how Katy of sugarlaws is doing, but based on previous exchanges she's either finished or almost finished her marathon.

Glamah16 of cococooks has had a crazy week, but will be joining us again next week.