It occurred to me the other day that if carrot cake is such a shining star on the dessert table, why not go for a beet cake? Beets tend to be sweeter and they’re just so dang purdy. Sexy red cake without the dye? I found a basic carrot cake recipe on Steph Davis’s site and made some substitutions; beets for carrots, craisins for raisins, and alterations in the applesauce to maple syrup ratio. Turns out you can make a sweet and delicious cake with only a half a cup of maple syrup as the sweetener and no sugar. The result of this experimentation was a smashing success – a beautiful, moist, delicious, processed sugar free and vegan birthday cake for my decidedly UN-vegan friend, Mike. Mike who used to think he didn’t like vegetables but made my day when he went back for his THIRD serving of this birthday cake.
- Preheat oven to 375 and lightly oil your cake pan
- Place the 2 T of flax seed meal in a small bowl with the hot water and coconut oil (if using) and set aside. It will thicken up – this stands in for eggs (no cholesterol! high in omega 3, high in B vitamins, high in fiber, hurrah!)
- Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl
- Mix the wet ingredients together in a smaller bowl, including the beets. You can either grate the beets or whizz them around in a food processor.
- Add the flax, oil, water mixture to the wet ingredients
- Fold the wet ingredients into the dry and spoon into your prepared baking pan
- Bake at 375 until done – about 30 to 40 minutes
- Allow the cake to cool slightly before frosting with Cashew Cream Frosting.
Hmmm beer cake, not a bad idea 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the Minestrone and thanks for the comments!
Got excited … thought this was beer cake but beet cake is nearly as good!
I made the minestone soup by the way – delicious!! I added orzo as I had no quinoa – very loverly