Chocolate Beet Cake

a.k.a. Chocolate Love Cream Cake

Dry Ingredients:

Flour – 2 cups
Baking Soda – 1 teaspoon
Baking Powder – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1/2 teaspoon
Cocoa – 1/2 cup
Granulated Sugar – 1 cup
Chocolate Chips – 1/2 cup

Wet Ingredients:

Vegenaise (love cream) – 1 cup
Silk Creamer, Original – 1/2 cup
Vanilla – 1 teaspoon
Beets – 4 large or 2 cups shredded

Prepare the Beets. Scrub the beets to remove excess dirt and place in a pan of water. Set beet juice aside if you are going to use the Cool Whip topping option. Simmer until fork tender, about 20 minutes for large beets. Drain and cool enough to slip the skins off with your fingers. Put beets in a food processor and pulse until they are ground but not pureed. Set aside to cool.

[Or, peel and grate the beets. Simmer in water for 10 minutes, drain and set aside the juice if using the Cool Whip topping option.]

[Or peel and dice the beets and shred in a food processor, then simmer until tender.]

Prepare dry ingredients. Measure flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa into a strainer or sieve and sift into a large bowl. Add sugar and chips and mix thoroughly.

Grease a 9″ x 13″ pan with margarine and dust with cocoa powder. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Prepare wet ingredients. In a medium-sized bowl, measure all wet ingredients and whisk to blend.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and fold together, taking care not to over-mix or the cake will be more like bread than cake. The batter will be thick.

Spread cake batter into the greased pan and bake for 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick to make sure it is done. Toothpick should come out clean.

Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Top with either beet juice-colored cool whip or chocolate frosting.

Pink Topping

Cool Whip and beet juice reduced to 1/4 cup. Reduce beet juice by simmering until you have 1/4 cup. Cool and stir into cool whip. Top each piece of cake as it is served.

Chocolate Frosting

Margarine – 1/2 cup (1 stick)
Confectioner’s Sugar – 2 cups (powdered sugar)
Cocoa – 1/3 cup
Salt – a dash
Soymilk – 2 Tablespoons
Vanilla – 1 Tablespoon

Soften margarine. Using an electric mixer, cream sugar and margarine.
Add cocoa, salt, soymilk, and vanilla. Mix well until light and fluffy.
Frost cake after it has cooled and refrigerator the frosted cake for one hour.

Notes:

Cool whip is not vegan because it contains sodium caseinate from milk. There is a product called Hip Whip which I have not tried.
Do not over-stir or the cake will be more like bread than cake.

Taken from this 2010 article at AlterNet.