Valentine's Beet Cake

Love, love, love to you all today on Valentine's Day (and every other day as well)!  I meant to post this yesterday, but, well...sometimes life has other plans.  So, here you go, a little Valentine's love from us to you.

I love cake made with beets.  I'm pretty sure anyone who knows me well, knows this.  Mason's birthday cake the last three years has been my favorite chocolate beet cake.  

With all of these beet heart stamps everywhere, it just makes sense to make a pink (ish) beet cake for Valentine's day.  

It just so happens that my favorite Valentine's story to tell, The Valentine Baker of Pink, involves baking heart-shaped cakes, so this week as a part of our homeschool co-op gathering, I told the story and we baked a cake together.  

Using my made-up recipe, flour flying all over the dining room, we managed to get two beautiful cakes in the oven for a heart-shaped beet cake.  Sometimes baking with kids is all sunshine and smiles. Sometimes.  Sometimes it is...well, more.  Since our story was about baking, and involved using very special ingredients, I really wanted to involve the little ones in every step of the process.  It mostly went great considering we had five eager and enthusiastic children, a big bowl of flour, and a bowl of pink beets.

I didn't manage to get any photos of the process this time...and I'm sure my camera is thankful that I did not try.  I thought, oh well, I'll just take a quick photo of the cake when it's done.  This is what I managed...

 

There was nothing to be done but bake another cake.  

So this is what we did today.  I adjusted the recipe a little, and actually let the cake cool before taking it out of the pans, which resulted in a cake that held together quite nicely.  It was a hit with our group on Tuesday, and we had a repeat performance today.  

Some of you may be wondering, "Yes, but does it taste like beets?"  The answer is no...and yes.  I think that if this cake was served to an unsuspecting person (who clearly does not know me that well), they would never know that it was made with beets.  And, if you know, and know beets, you will recognize that distinctive earthy quality of the beet, and love the cake anyway.

Also, the cake itself is not as pink as it probably could be.  I don't used bleached white anything, so many of my ingredients have a little color to them (flour, sugar, honey, etc.) The batter is quite pink, as you can see below, but it loses some color in the baking.  I find this quite easy to make up for with the frosting. Also, I did add a little cocoa powder

So here you go, our Valentine's beet cake.  Enjoy!

 

Valentine's Beet Cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 3/4 cup flour (I used a combo of whole wheat pastry flour and unbleached white)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 t vanilla
3 eggs, divided
1 large red beet
1/2 cup milk

Frosting:
1/2 cup butter
around 5 ounces cream cheese 
2 - 5 tablespoons of honey (really, to taste)
about 1 cup of strawberries (thawed if frozen)

Before you can really start baking this cake you'll need to roast your beet.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, rub the beet with oil, and wrap in aluminum foil.  Roast the beet until it is fork tender.

While the beet is cooking, prep your heart shaped pans.  Both of mine are thrift store finds, and one is a little bigger than the other, but it still works.  I like to butter the pans, line with parchment, and the butter and flour the parchment.

Preheat your oven to 350.

When your beet is tender, let it cool a little, then trim the stems and root and peel.  The peel should slide right off under some cold running water.  Place the beet and 1/2 cup milk in a food processor or blender and process until fairly smooth.  Super-simple.  Even a wee babe can do it.  :)

 

This is what it will look like:

Next, sift your dry ingredients together, and feel free to use a bowl a little less huge.

Cream the butter and sweeteners together, then add 1 whole egg and two egg yolks.  Mix in the vanilla.

Now, add the dry ingredients and the milk/beet mixture to the creamed mixture.  The best way to do this is to alternate adding the wet and the dry ingredients to your main bowl, incorporating each addition before adding the next.  Does that make sense?  Look at that pink batter!

Next, take the two egg whites that you separated out earlier and beat them until you have soft peaks.

 

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, taking care not to over mix.

 Pour your batter into prepared pans and bake in a 350 degree oven until a toothpick comes out clean (about 30 minutes).

 

When your cakes are done, take them out and leave them to cool a little in the pans before carefully removing them.

 

While the cakes are cooling, make your frosting!  Cream your butter and cream cheese, add in the honey, then mix in the strawberries...so simple, so delicious.  

 

Cakes cool and frosting made, it's time to assemble!  I think there is charm in an imperfectly frosted cake, don't you?  I also sprinkled some India Tree decorating sugar on it, and then instantly regretted it, so, do what you like with that.

And then, of course, time for the taste test.  One judge said "It's delicious!", the other said "cake, yummy!" So there you have it. 

 

I say, "Yay for beets...and hearts...and cake!"

Comments

[Kerry]

Most beautiful beet cakes! We had a little Valentine's day tea party this afternoon (special request just the girls) and too a pink cake and frosting were needed. We bought some bulk beet powder from the Coop and when we mixed it in with the batter ingredients it turned a lovely shade of pink. After baking you never would have known though. The pink was cooked right out of them but the cakes were distinctively sweet - one mama asked if it was a banana cake. We made a simple frosting with butter and powdered sugar and the rest of the beet powder and it turned out delicious to eat and look at. Much love to you and yours this happy Valentine's day - your special delivery was a wonderful surprise - infused with love and sweetness. Thank you all so much! Kerry

[allisoncruse]

Thanks Kerry! I just love your comments.

I had not thought of using the beet powder...great idea. It seems hard to keep the color in the cakes, but you can make up for it with the frosting. A Valentine's tea party sounds wonderful! I bet the girls had fun. Glad you liked the delivery! We had so much fun putting them together and secretly delivering them this afternoon. See you soon!