Beet Cake

The New Greenmarket Cookbook was going around my office a few weeks ago and landed in my hands. I spotted this gorgeous, rustic beet cake on the cover and immediately took note of the recipe. Being an avid lover of carrot cake and beets (especially beet juice), I knew this recipe was meant for me.

I followed the recipe almost exactly, except I swapped out grapeseed oil for coconut, creme fraiche for sour cream, and used a little less sugar than instructed (I have a low tolerance for sweets). The finished batter was intensely fuchsia but the baked cake had only a slight red tint. The cake turned out super moist and chewy, with a subtle earthy flavor - even better than I had anticipated.

Adapted from Karen Demasco’s recipe in The New Greenmarket Cookbook

(Yield: 1 8″ cake)

Ingredients:
1 c raw sugar (I used 4/5 c), plus 2 tbsp for topping the cake
1/2 c melted coconut oil (or other neutral vegetable oil)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c sour cream, at room temp
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temp
1 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 c (about 2 fist-sized beets) grated beets, raw + peeled
1 tbsp butter

Procedure: Heat oven to 350F. Grate beets (I used a food processor and urge you to do the same) and set aside. In a large bowl, stir together sugar and coconut oil until combined. Then mix in sour cream and vanilla. Add the egg and egg yolk and stir until homogeneous. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture in three separate additions, stirring each time until combined.

Add the grated beets and mix until evenly incorporated. (It will seem like there’s too much beets for the batter but keep stirring and scraping the sides of the bowl as you go and the beets will eventually mix in). Scrape cake batter into a buttered 8″ cake pan (I used a springform pan) and sprinkle with remaining 2 tbsp sugar.

Bake for 50 min to 1 hour, rotating the pan after 30 min, until cake is golden brown, firm, and an inserted toothpick comes out with crumbs, not wet batter. Allow the cake to cool in the pan, on a cooling rack. Once the cake is warm, not hot, remove it from the pan. Enjoy warm, topped with sour cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg, if desired.