In a desperate attempt to use up beets from my CSA, I decided to try baking with them. I was a bit apprehensive after Dara didn’t have great success with beet brownies… I wondered if perhaps it really was just not possible to incorporate a root vegetable into a dessert.

I decided to take a different route and started looking at cake recipes. There was one that sounded interesting, plus I had all of the ingredients! Bonus! The recipe is here. The only thing I did different was I added nutmeg instead of allspice (which I did not have).

I’m not going to lie. I was nervous. I had memories of my Babci G.’s borcht. I began to doubt that this cake would turn out well. After all, I am not a fan of the beet. I dislike their earthy flavor. Face it — they taste like dirt. But luckily I was wrong about the recipe. It came out moist and delicious! Somehow I don’t taste the beets at all in this recipe. It taste more like a spice cake or a carrot cake (just as someone had commented on the recipe’s page). I frosted it with cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut. I also sprinkled some walnuts on top.

Cake is a worthy use of beets.