Chocolate Beet Cake with Blushing Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting

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Course Dessert

Ingredients

For the cake:

1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup evaporated cane sugar
½ cup Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 smallish beet cooked* and cooled
½ cup strong brewed coffee
¼ cup grapeseed or other neutral oil
1 tablespoon white vinegar
⅓ cup unsweetened oat milk almond milk or other plantbased milk
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

For the frosting:

6 tablespoons vegan butter chilled
8 ounces vegan cream cheese chilled
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla*
1 small beet cooked, peeled, cooled and sliced

Instructions

To make the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly oil an 8-inch cake pan.
In a bowl, sift together unbleached flour, sugar, baking soda, and Dutch process cocoa.
Puree the beet in a blender or food processor. Pour in coffee and process just until the mixture reaches a creamy, milkshake-like consistency.
Add about half the flour mixture, blitz briefly to combine, then add the oil, vinegar, plantbased milk and vanilla. Process again briefly.
Add the remaining flour mixture and process one last time till it coalesces and forms a thickish, luscious batter.
Pour into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 45 minutes, or until kitchen smells chocolatey and a tester inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool and unmold.

To make the frosting:

Using a food processor, whip the butter until creamy.
Drain any moisture from the cream cheese, and add to the vegan butter, mixing just to combine.
Add the vanilla (or other flavoring) and the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until combined, creamy and billowy.
Add one thin slice of beet — about a teaspoon. Make sure it gets well-blitzed by the blade. It will instantly color your frosting, turning it a lovely pink. If you want deeper color, add one thin slice of beet at a time.

Notes

This will make enough to frost 2 8-inch layers.

Adding a slice of cooked beet will turn this frosting pink. Two slices of beet will turn it well, beet red. How much beet is up to you.

Frosting tips:
Make sure cake is cool before frosting.
For best spreadability, cover and refrigerate frosting 30 minutes before spreading on cake.

Keyword beet cake, red velvet cake

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