Chocolate Beet Loaf

For the beets: Roast beets for 1 hour in a 400 F oven until tender. Cool, peel and puree. This can be done a day ahead of time. You will need 1 cup of puree for the bread.

For the cake: Move the oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Line an 8- by 4-inch loaf pan with parchment paper so the edges of the paper hang over the sides. Grease the unlined section of pan.

Whisk sugar, oil, beet puree, eggs, zest and salt in a large bowl until combined. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, clove, cocoa and milk. Whisk until completely combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into pan. Sprinkle top with pearl sugar. Bake until the top is just set and skewer inserted into the center comes out with some moist crumbs. This will take around 65 to 75 minutes. Let bread cool in the pan and then transfer to a wire rack.