Red Velvet Beet Cupcakes

Chocolate beet cake is more delicious than regular chocolate cake. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but you’re just going to have to trust me. Picture the way a homemade carrot cake has more depth than a box cake, and that gets you part of the way there.

This recipe is also describes the only cake I’ve ever been able to make successfully, perhaps because it’s actually an adaptation of the brownies from The Joy of Cooking. Plus, crucially, this recipe produces only a minimal amount of dirty dishes. You won’t need to break out a mixer or any other special equipment to make it.

If you or someone you love is trying to get more vegetables into your diet, this recipe successfully disguises a respectable amount of very nutritious vegetables… as dessert.

One final note: because the beets are so well hidden in this cake, you might forget that you ate them. You did eat beets. Sometimes that’s important to remember, you know, later.

Ingredients

3 cups shredded beets

2/3 cup melted butter (I like to use a mix of butter and sunflower oil)

4 eggs

1½ cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

1½ cups flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

pinch of salt

Directions

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350°. Stir together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Melt and then slightly cool a couple tablespoons of butter in a measuring cup, then top it off with sunflower oil or some other neutral type of oil to make 2/3 cup. This gets you good flavor plus butter that’s cool enough to add eggs to. Add the melted baking chocolate to the melted butter and oil.

Stir in the sugar, then the eggs and vanilla, to the butter and oil and chocolate.

A little at a time, stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture. Finally, fold the beets into the batter. Fill 12 to 15 cupcake liners, or 2 round cake pans.

Bake until a fork comes out clean, about 25 to 40 minutes, depending on the type of pan you use.