For beetniks

I guess I was a bit premature in assuming I would have so much to write about in September that I would need to curtail the August posts because as it turns out, so far, September hasn't been too much to write home about. Of course that's mainly because I spent much of the past week and weekend catching up on some freelance work, which turned out not to be too much of a loss because it rained or tornadoed most of Saturday anyway. Also, up until this morning it hasn't really felt like fall. Just the hot, muggy end of summer. Fall is by far my favorite season, so after Labor Day I'm pretty eager for it to cool down to an acceptable temperature for baking/apple picking/sweaters/what have you. And this morning, the first glimmer of that could be felt! It's still pretty warm (not a bad thing) but there's a hint of crispness in the air. Now is the time I generally get over zealous and pack up all my sundresses and take out all my sweaters only to have it get to be 90 degrees by the end of the week. I will try to resist that urge this year. Learning from past mistakes is difficult.

At any rate, since I haven't done too much else of note (unless anyone wants to learn about becoming a sanitation worker or marketing a digital movie, in which case I am a fount of information), I thought I'd include a recipe. It's been a while, after all. I've been ignoring the weather patterns and getting into the swing of things with fall baking lately. Mostly I've been doing the type of baking that helps me get rid of farm share vegetables that I've grown tired of (the downside of eating seasonally) by hiding them in cakes. To that end I made a delicious chocolate zucchini bread the other day, but I'm not going to share the recipe because it's nothing special (Add cocoa powder and chocolate chips to a regular zucchini bread base. Done.) However, I did make a fairly delicious beet cake the other day by combining a couple of recipes in an attempt to use up a couple of beets that were just past their prime. The result was surprisingly tasty.

Clearly, this is not of a beet cake. I'm done taking uninspired food photos. Until I can figure out how basic lighting works, I will be stealing photos from the Internet. These are what beets that are not past their prime look like.

Directions:

Makes one 8 inch cake round.

2 medium beets
1 tsp vegetable oil
6 T butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup buttermilk
juice of one orange

Icing:
zest of one orange
1 cup sour cream
1/2 powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Wash and dry beets and cut them in half. Place them on a piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with oil. Seal the foil and roast in the oven until tender (45 minutes to 1 hour). Reduce oven to 350 degrees.

Allow beets to cool. They should peel very easily. Once you remove the peel, grate the beets and set the shredded beet aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat until pale and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat to combine.

In a separate bowl, combine the dry incredients. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture alternating with the milk. When all combined, add the orange juice and stir to combine. Try not to overbeat.

Turn into an 8 inch cake pan and bake for 30 minutes (or until an inserted skewer comes out clean). Allow cake to cool.

While cake is cooling, beat the orange zest, sour cream, and powdered sugar. Taste, and add more sugar as needed. When cake is cool, frost!

This cake turned out delicious and for beet haters (I know I have at least one blog reader who fits this description), you don't taste the beets at all. All that comes through is a beautiful color, a slight earthy sweetness, and the oranges.