Chocolate Beet Cake

Chocolate Beet Cake

Recipe adapted from Joy the Baker

I like to eat cake. I like to look at cakes too and come up with creative ways of making them look festive. In fact, my sister and I each won first place in our Elementary school cake decorating contest 11 consecutive years between the two of us. We do cakes well you could say. One year my sister made a sinking titanic cake that was at a 45 degree angle coming out of the water. Another year I made a life size ballerina cake, tutu and all. And then there was the year that my sister made a train cake with little cars all decorated differently and there was little mishap in the middle of the night. See I got a little hungry and thought I would be able to sneak off a corner of the caboose and smear a little frosting over my bite to cover it up and voila, no one would be able to know. In the morning my sister noticed something funky going on with her cake and freaked out. My mom said we probably had a rat in the house that ate a chunk. The two quickly whipped up a little more cake and frosting and repaired the caboose until it looked normal again. I never confessed it was me who ate a chunk off the end until a few weeks later, and although it was a little hilarious, my sister was pretty angry despite the fact she had won again that year. But hey, I was the little sister and it was my job to be a little rambunctious sometimes! 

After leaving Elementary school, I haven't gotten a chance to make such extravagant cakes but I always welcome another opportunity to be creative. This particular cake I made for last Valentines Day. It is the densest chocolate cake I have ever eaten and also contains my favorite vegetable: Beets!! The frosting is naturally dyed from the beets and you can pretty much say it's healthy (ahem....butter, cream cheese.... obviously don't count). This cake is good for any occasion though and I'm sure I'll make it again soon. 

Ingredients for Cake:

2 medium beets

1 teaspoon vegetable oil

6 ounces (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing the pans

1 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pans

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk
2 large eggs

Ingredients for Frosting:

8 ounces (1 brick) cream cheese, softened

4 to 5 cups powdered sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons finely grated beets, mashed with a fork

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or scrapings of one vanilla bean pod

1-2 teaspoons milk, depending on desired consistency

1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

pinch of salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Wash and trim beets and roast in a pot of boiling water until tender, about 40 min. The skin of the beets will start to easily peel away.

3) When beets are fully cool, using a Cuisinart or hand-held grater, finely grate beets. 

4) Prep two 9 in baking pans with butter and a circle of parchment paper in the bottom of each pan. 

5) With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. 

6) One at a time, beat in the eggs. 

7) Next beat in grated beets and vanilla.

8) In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt. 

9) Slowly add half of the dry ingredients to the butter mix. Add half the amount of buttermilk. Add the other half of dry ingredients and the rest of the buttermilk. Mix until fully incorporated but not over-mixed. It is thick batter! (And therefore dense cake!)

10) Scrape batter into the two cake pans and bake 23-25 min until a knife or cake tester comes out clean from the center. 

While cake is baking, make the frosting.

1) With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add butter and mix until combined. 

2) Add beets, then powdered sugar, vanilla, milk, lemon juice, and salt. Beat until silky. 

3) Place in refrigerator for until cakes are completely cooled. 

To assemble cake merely place one layer of your cake on the surface you will serve it from. Frost the top of this cake. Place the other layer on top. Then completely frost the top and sides of the cake. It will be a gorgeous pink color from the beets! 

Flag Cake!

Flag Cake! Lemon Cake with White Chocolate Frosting

Adapted from Delectable Deliciousness

Well it's raining again..... But I'd use this as an excuse to put on some good music (Florence and the Machine is great baking music), some funky clothes (hawaiian flower print shorts), and bake a cake! A patriotic cake! Just in time for our little holiday known as 4th of July. Then tomorrow, the sun will come out and both the cake and the hawaiian shorts can be put to good use.

I made this cake last year for 4th of July and took it to my neighborhood party. Not only was it delicious but the presentation was a huge hit! It's a pretty dense cake and since there were so many other baked goods at my neighborhood extravaganza last year I had leftovers to pedal on down to Gasworks park with where my friends and I ate even MORE cake and watched the fireworks. It was a good day. 

I will warn you that the assembling of the cake layers is quite a challenge and I would caution anyone who might attempt this cake to read through the directions several times first. (Really.) The best part about this cake is that you'll have leftover cake as you assemble the layers to munch on and make sure everything tastes ok! Rewards for all the hard work. 

Ingredients for 2 layers of cake: **** You must make 1 and 1/2 batches for this cake!!! One layer will be dyed red, one dyed blue, and one left plain. 

2 1/4 cup cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups whole milk or buttermilk

4 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract

Red food dye
Blue food dye

Directions for cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prep two 9 inch cake pans. 

2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. 

3. Wisk milk and egg whites in a separate bowl.

4. In an electric mixer combine sugar and lemon zest. Add butter and lemon extract. 

5. Add half of flour mix and half of egg mix. Then add the other half of flour mix and egg mix. 

6. Mix until all ingredients are fully incorporated. 

7. Pour into pie pans and bake 30 min. 

Ingredients for frosting: *** Double the recipe to make sure you have a good thick layer of frosting! And from these photos you can see I spread it nice and thick. 

5 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped fine

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

pinch salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup sour cream

Directions for frosting:

1. Melt white chocolate in microwave by heating in small 30 second intervals. Set aside to cool. 

2. In a mixer beat butter then add powdered sugar until combined fully. 

3. Add salt, vanilla, and sour cream.

4. Add white chocolate and mix until done! 

How to Assemble:

1. Cut red and white cakes horizontally so you have two layers of each.

2. Place one layer of red on your surface topped by one layer of white with a layer of frosting in between. 

3. Stack the remaining red and white layers with blue on top on a separate work area. (no frosting)

4. Place a small bowl in the center of the stack of red, white, and blue, and carefully cut out a circle through all 3 layers. 

5. Set the red and white outer parts and the blue circle aside to be munched on.

6. Stack the red circle topped by the white circle on top of your bottom layers with frosting in between.

7. Finally put the blue outer portion around the red/white circles with frosting. 

8. Finish frosting the entire outside and top of cake.

9. Decorate with fresh blueberries and strawberries if desired. 

10. You're finished! Cut a slice for presentation. 

Curried Squash and Red Lentils

I've revamped my blog and would like to share my cooking with you all in a more accessible way by posting recipes included with my photos. Part of why I like to cook and share meals with friends, family, and even strangers is because we can all be united by eating the same foods together. I want to share the things I create in my life with others in order to create a universal love for good, healthy, and conscious eating. This kind of eating is nothing fancy. It doesn't require spending large sums of money at hip grocery stores. It doesn't mean slaving over a hot stove for hours on end and following a complicated recipe to a tee. Rather it is a quiet kind of revolution, one that honors simple living. It might mean digging through some dirt in your back garden or chatting with a farmer at the local farmer's market. But in my opinion, these are all keys to the good life. 

Curried Squash and Red Lentils 

Adapted from Shutterbean

This dish is one I have made many times over the past couple of months after finding it on one of my favorite blogs of all time, Shutterbean. I like the idea of a one bowl meal and the flavors in this dish make me feel warm and satisfied. It also can be varied depending on the vegetables you have in your fridge, one of those "kitchen sink" type dishes that you can pretty much hide whatever you like within the lentil goodness. 

Ingredients: Serves 4. 

I halved the ingredients to make enough for dinner and a leftover lunch but kept the quantity of carrot and celery the same because I'm a veggie fan. I also added zucchini, you know, just because. 

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 1/2 lb butternut squash, peeled & cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 large onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 celery stalk, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons grated ginger

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 cup red lentils

4 cups water

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Melt butter and olive oil in a large pan. Add squash, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, ginger, and salt. Cook until onion is done. Add spices along with lentils and water. Cook covered, stirring periodically and checking to see if more water is needed until lentils are fully cooked. Add lemon juice and garnish with fresh cilantro.