I’ve been bombarded with a bevvy of beets recently. Thanks to a bountiful beet season here in Austin, Johnson’s Backyard Garden has been shoveling these little beauties into my CSA box. Not that I mind. I like beets as much as the next guy, but after a while… I’m running short on ideas for how to cook them.
Lucky for me I ran into this gloriously inspirational video. More art than recipe, Tiger in a Jar presents a very romantic illustration of prep work in this short, lovely film. How could I not make some beet cake after watching it?
beet cake from tiger in a jar on Vimeo.
You can find a more detailed recipe and instructions on Tiger in a Jar’s blog. I followed it more or less to the letter, with the exception of pan size and bake time. Instead of baking a whole cake, I opted to enlist the help of my adorable miniature bundt pan. These itty bitty cakes baked in a very short time, perhaps 10 – 15 minutes? (Sorry, I forgot to keep a stopwatch going.) Just bake them you start to smell them, then test them for doneness with a tootpick. If it goes in and comes out clean, they are done!
I think that these little cakes would have been even better with some mini chocolate chips inside. Curse me for not thinking of it beforehand. If I make these again, you can be sure that I’ll be adding an extra punch of chocolate. I sprinkled these with powdered sugar, but a chocolate glaze would have been quite nice as well. I can also imagine this cake recipe would be delightful with whipped cream and fresh berries. Since it only has a hint of chocolate, it would be very versatile.