Mmm Cake!

Inspired by seasonal, local ingredients we made a Chocolate Beet Cake. Now, just because it has beets in it doesn’t mean it tastes like beets. The beets add body and depth to the batter. Made with dark chocolate, the cake is not too sweet, and is great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Beet Cake
makes one bundt cake

Chocolate Butter Glaze – optional

• 4 oz. bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 8 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

Cake Batter

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 1 cup vegetable oil (or other mild-flavored oil; do not use olive)
  • divided in recipe
• 3 eggs
• 1 ¾ cups sugar
• 2 cups pureed cooked beets (3 medium beets)
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat over to 375°F

Steam the beets for about 30 minutes; then puree them if you haven’t already.

Lightly coat a 10-cup Bundt pan with oil and dust it with flour. Put the chocolate and ¼ cup of the oil in bowl on top of a double boiler. Heat just until the chocolate melts; remove from heat and stir to combined. Return to heat as needed until chocolate and oil are well integrated.

Combine the eggs and sugar in a bowl for an electric mixer and beat with the beater attachment until fluffy. Slowly beat in the remaining ¾ cup of oil, chocolate mixture, beets, and vanilla. Sift the dry ingredients together and gently stir the flour mixture into the egg and chocolate mixture just until flour is mixed in.

Be careful when working with beets; they stain.

Pour the batter into your prepared bundt pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. It depends on what kind of pan you use and your oven. Everyone is different. Bake until done.

Cool for about 20 minutes before inverting from pan.

While your cake is cooling prepare the Chocolate Butter Glaze. You can skip this step and just dust your cake with powdered sugar.

In a double boiler melt the chocolate. Remove from heat when the chocolate is nearly melted and stir until smooth. Add the softened butter. slowly stir with a rubber spatula until no visible traces of butter remain.

The glaze should be glossy and smooth with a temperature of 80-85 degrees. (I didn’t temp my glaze.) When stirred, it will hold a line on the surface for about 10 seconds before disappearing.

If the glaze is too hot it will all run off your cake; If the glaze is too cool it will not run smoothly down the sides. You can test it on a spoon until you are comfortable with the consistency. Pour over you cake, let the glaze cool a few minutes before cutting.

Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or whipped cream.

adapted from Peterson, John, and Angelic Organics. Farmer John’s Cookbook. Gibbs Smith: Salt Lake City, 2006.

Spring has Arrived

We went to the Farmer’s Market like we do every Saturday. Picked up some asparagus, fingerling potatoes, salad greens, and rhubarb.

We grabbed the puppies and were off to visit my parents. The weather was perfect. A great day. Wednesday and Schuman had soooo much fun running around and jumping in the muddy swamp that sits near the house that they had to get baths before they could come inside.

Now, I’ve never been a rhubarb fan. Probably because I’ve always been such a picky eater, and wouldn’t branch out and try new things. Well…

Today was The Day of Rhubarb. Joe made a Rhubarb Upside-down Cake [Recipe below], and my mom made a Rhubarb Pie. Both were glorious.

AND dinner was just as fabulous. Herbed chicken, grilled asparagus, steamed and statued potatoes, micro-green salad, and sourdough bread from Eugene City Bakery.

We also had a chance to watch Juno again. My parents hadn’t seen it yet. I’m going to try and watch it with the commentary before we have to return it. It is such a great movie!

A day well spent.

Rhubarb Upside Down Cake
makes one 9″ cake

Topping:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ¾ cups brown sugar
• 2 ½ cups small, diced rhubarb (about 3-4 medium stalks)

Batter:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, separated
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup whole milk
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tarter

Preheat over to 325-350°F.

Over low heat, melt the butter in a saucepan stirring in the brown sugar until it dissolves. Pour into a greased 9″ cake pan and form to coat the bottom. Toss the chopped rhubarb with about 2 TBS sugar before arranging it neatly over the brown sugar mixture, covering the bottom completely. This is going to be the TOP of the cake when you flip it. Set the pan aside while you prepare the cake batter.

With an electric mixer, in a very clean bowl, whisk the eggs whites with the cream of tartar until they are stiff enough to hold a slight shape. Set aside. (You can dump them in a glass bowl and wipe our the mixer bowl for the rest of the batter).

With the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar until pale, light, and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, and egg yolks. One at a time, scraping the bowl to make sure all the butter in incorporated. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add them to the batter alternately with the milk. Begin and end with the dry ingredients.

Fold by hand the egg whites into the batter a third at a time.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly over the rhubarb. Make sure not to disturb the rhubarb too much. Bake for 20-35 minutes, until the top is browned and the cake pulls away slightly from the edges of the pan. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes before turning it out. Serve with whipped cream, or even better Ice Cream!

You can do this same cake with pears, plums, peaches, cranberries, or any berry or stone fruit really.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: Fleming, Claudia. The Last Course: Desserts of the Gramercy Tavern. Random House, New York: 2001.