Chocolate Beet Cake
From CSA member Cheryl Munn
Thank you to Cheryl for passing on this great recipe. It makes a delicious moist cake! 
2 cups cooked and pureed with the skin on organic Red Fire Farm beets
1 cup organic granulated sugar
½ cup coconut oil, EVOO or butter
½ cup plain organic yogurt
3 organic eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup baking cocoa
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup all natural chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bundt pan.
In a bowl, combine the sugar, oil, yogurt, eggs, and vanilla. Cream until smooth. Add the beets stirring to blend well.
Mix flour, cocoa, soda and salt together in a separate bowl. Add to the beet mixture, beating until just blended. Pour half the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the batter in the pan, pour the remaining batter over the top of the chips. You could add walnuts or other nuts with the chocolate chips.
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Servings: 12 to 16.
Notes from making this cake for Chester’s Birthday in 2023:
For using as a sheet cake, you can put the cake in a 9×13 size pan, and start checking it for doneness earlier at about 30-35 minutes. A doubled recipe did well for us for Chester’s birthday cake in a big lasagna baking pan that had about the footprint of a big baking sheet. We used coconut oil, some date and coconut sugars, and added the zest of one lemon for fun. The cake batter was quite thick and didn’t pour, so we used a metal spatula to even it out in the pan before baking. It baked up nicely.
This cake with the date and coconut sugar we used and whole wheat flour doesn’t spike the blood sugar and is not very sweet, which I like, but you could add more sweetener and change up the flours if you like a sweeter fluffier cake. And to top, we made a ganache of equal ounces of heavy cream and bittersweet baking chocolate warmed and stirred together in a double boiler- wicked good with a little bit of fresh fruit on top :). Cheers! ~ Sarah Voiland
