Valentine's Day Suprise

Happy Valentine’s Day! I put in some pictures of us in the spirit (at the bottom - notice, mom, the cute ribbon flowers I found in a box while unpacking.....yes those are from your wedding and a few other events.). We do not really do Valentine’s Day (esp. since our anniversary is so close) but I thought I would make a cake for the office anyway. I started to bake last night and did not have anything standard to make a cake (this is why we need a personal assistant – see entry below). So I got creative (not really a stretch since I do not ever follow a recipe anyway) and used things like beets, apples, yogurt….I will just write down what I did as best as I can remember since I do not really measure……..Try it – it is GOOD and good for you (as far as chocolate cake goes). I know the opening ingredient sounds a little out of place….you can not taste it at all if you puree well. The applesauce covers the taste too:

Boil 3-4 med sized beets for 20-30 minutes until soft. Rinse, peel and chop into small pieces.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Decide on your pan(s) of choice:
9” cake pan, 9x13 glass pan, muffin tins, bite size muffin tins, little loafs, etc. I like to grease the pan, line with wax or parchment paper (not the glass pan since it stays in there), grease the paper and sprinkle a bit of flour in to lightly coat all the sides and bottom. Better success to get it out whole. I did a cake pan with these amounts.

Put 2 cups of beets in a blender with ½ cup applesauce (maybe a little more), puree and set aside for a bit!!!

In bowl combine and set aside for sifting later:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/5 cup spilt flour (or white/cake flours I guess)
½ tsp salt
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon

In another big bowl combine and blend for like 2 minutes:
1-1.5 cup sucant (dried sugar cane….I guess maybe 1 cup sugar would do)
½ cup oil (I used half olive and have coconut oil)
½ cup plain yogurt
3 eggs

Sift in ½- ¾ cup coco powder (how chocolate like do you want it)
Add 1.5 tsp vanilla
Add the puree in the blender
Blend 2 more minutes or so…(be careful – it will splatter red!)

Put the blender away, start sifting (1 cup at a time) the flour mixture into your batter and stirring in gently. Continue until all flour is sifted in.

Put ½ the batter in the pan, sprinkle chopped up chocolate bars (the good for you kind – like endangered species or go raw) and cover with the other ½ of the batter. For muffins – I filled the cups ½ full and pushed a “treat” of chocolate into the middle of each. Be creative.

Slide in the oven and set the time for 15 minutes. Check, and set the timer again. The bite size muffins took 15 minutes, the cake took 35 min but I have an OLD GAS oven at the moment. I have not tried with a little loaf, loaf or glass pan.

I am telling you – Try it! It is good. Everyone at the office thinks it is pretty good (as you can tell by the pictures – remember there is only 7 of us in the office and Jeremy and I did not have any yet).


Have a wonderful day and make it a point to pass on a smile to someone else today!