If you’re like me and happen to hate beets, you have a few of those root vegetables left in your refrigerator from last week’s Fruit and Veggie.  You’re not going to eat them raw, boiled, sliced, or otherwise, so why not bake them into a cake?  I’m serious.  That’s what I did the other night, and the results were surprisingly delicious.  This recipe, adapted from myrecipes.com, is similar to carrot cake and just as yummy.  Also the batter turns out bright pink.

Beet Cake

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

2 or 3 large beets
2 cups of flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger

For the Frosting:

2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 block of cream cheese
2 tsp. orange or lemon rind for taste

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grate the beets. Combine the sugar, eggs, oil until well-blended. Add the beets. Add the dry ingredients (flour, spices, baking powder). Mix well. Add the milk. Make sure all dry ingredients are incorporated and that there are no air bubbles in the batter. Grease the baking pan and pour the mix into the pan. Bake for thirty minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Make sure the cake has cooled before placing frosting.

To make the frosting, beat the orange rind, vanilla, and cream cheese. Add the powdered sugar. The recipe recommends cutting the cake in half in order to have a layer of frosting in the middle.