I never realized baking cakes with vegetables wasn’t a thing everywhere, until I met my dear friend Nicky. Nicky is from South Africa, and kindly informed me that this practice was indeed odd, but how did I do it because she was interested in making a cake with vegetables for her son’s first birthday.
Any prairie person worth their salt (who enjoys baking) will have a standard recipe for zucchini cake or carrot cake. Beet cake is equally delicious and a great way to use up those larger beets you grew that weren’t as nice for canning.
Related: Beet Leaf Rolls and Red Velvet Cake with Beets
This old fashioned beet cake is very similar to carrot cake, and is delicious with cream cheese icing. I took it to a recent choir rehearsal, and it was devoured by my singers.
How do You Bake with Beets?
To use beets in your baking, start by boiling or roasting chopped beets until tender. Beets always take longer than I expect to roast them–often over an hour at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. However, you might be blessed with a higher quality oven that I am and it will go quicker for you.
Put your beets into a blender or food processor and puree them with a bit of water. There’s no exact science to this. Just blend the beets until your desired texture.
If you have extras, you can always save the pureed beets in a freezer bag and use at a later date. Beets keep well in the freezer and you should have no problems using them later in the year.
Old Fashioned Beet Cake
Similar to carrot cake, but with pureed beets.
Ingredients
- Beet Cake:
- 3 cups pureed beets
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup canola oil
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- Icing:
- 1 cup cream cheese (a block)
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
Instructions
- Cook and puree beets if you have not already done so.
- Beat eggs, sugars, and oil in a large bowl.
- Next, add in the pureed beets and milk.
- Finally, Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and beat until smooth.
- Transfer to a greased 9x13 inch baking pan.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cake cool completely.
- In the mean time, beat cream cheese, icing sugar, and vanilla in a mixer until smooth.
- Frost the beet cake with cream cheese icing
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
The additional time is the hour or so it will take to roast or boil the beets if you don't have cooked beets on hand already.
Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots. She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden. She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.
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