Red Velvet Beet Cake With Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

First, roast and peel the beets. Preheat oven to 375 F. Wrap beets in tin foil and roast until fork tender, 60-75 minutes. Then remove them from the oven and set them on a rack. Once cool enough to handle, peel the beets by sliding the skin off with the back of a knife. It should come off quite easily. Roughly chop the beets then puree them in a food processor until smooth. You should have about 1 cup of beet puree. Set aside. This can also be done ahead of time.

Keep oven at 375 F. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

In a large bowl, beat together 3/4 cup of the butter with the brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate with the remaining butter in the microwave in 30-second increments. Beat the melted chocolate mixture, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and beet puree into the butter/sugar/egg mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flours, baking soda, salt, and spices. Dump them into the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.

This took me about 40 minutes, but the original recipe says 60-70. The baking time will vary depending on which type of pan you use, so I would suggest starting to check at 40 minutes.

When done remove pan from the oven. Cool cake completely in pan on a wire rack. After cooling, invert it out of the pan onto a platter. You can frost the cake immediately or wrap it in plastic and refrigerate it for up to 2 days before continuing.

While cake cools, make the raspberry cream cheese frosting. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the frozen raspberries and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the raspberries have broken down. Pour through a mesh strainer into a small bowl and cool completely. This should yield between 3/4 and 1 cup raspberry sauce.

In a large bowl cream together the cream cheese and butter. Sift in the powdered sugar and beat until incorporated. Beat in the raspberry sauce. You can choose to use as much of the sauce as you want for a frosting anywhere from subtle to shocking pink!

Pour frosting over cooled cake and garnish with fresh raspberries.

The cake will keep covered for several days in the fridge. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Cake adapted from Straight From the Farm. Frosting adapted from Verve & Sass.