Ingredient Title Chef Category

All chocolate cakes are not alike

It isn't every day that you find beets on an ingredient list for chocolate cake but Deanna Naivar of Temple, TX wrote, "I love to collect and try new recipes - always trying to make a good recipe even better. This Red Beet Chocolate Cake is unbelievably delicious. It is a moist devil's food with several virtues: a way of sneaking beets into my children's diets and an excellent way to use home canned beets."

SURPRISING CHOCOLATE CAKE

You can't taste the beets that make this cake moist and delicious.

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 pint canned beets, drained, washed and grated
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 9 x 13-inch pan or 2 layers cake pans. Cream sugar and eggs together. Add oil, shredded beets and chocolate. Stir together the flour, baking soda and salt before combing them with the batter. Stir in vanilla. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until cake tests done. Ice with either a fluffy white or a chocolate icing.

Flo Burnett of Gage, OK, wrote, "I have been trying some fat-free recipes. Sometimes I am pleased with them; sometimes not. This is a good one."

DECADENT FAT-FREE CHOCOLATE CAKE

"Decadent" is a term that I think of in conjunction with heavy cream and butter...but neither are found in Flo's recipe.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
3 egg whites
1/2 cup light or dark corn syrup

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray or grease pans. In a large bowl stir together flour, cocoa, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl with a whisk or a fork stir sugar and water for 1 minute to dissolve the sugar. Add egg whites and corn syrup stirring until smoothly blended. Gradually stir egg white mixture into dry ingredients to make a smooth batter. Pour into pan and bake 35 minutes or until done. Cool and sprinkle with confectioners sugar or ice the cake, if desired.

This Chocolate Ganache cake is a very tall fella, especially if you bake it in two round pans and then split the layers to make a four layer cake with chocolate filling and icing to make the giant even taller.

CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Ganache is a two-ingredient filling and glaze made with heavy cream and bittersweet chocolate.

Cake:
l/4 cup boiling water
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
1 teaspoon instant-espresso powder
1/2 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
2 cups packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
Ganache filling and glaze:
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
20 ounces fine bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), finely chopped in a food processor

Cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 3 8-inch cake pans and line bottoms with wax or parchment paper. Butter paper and dust pans with flour. Whisk together water, cocoa and espresso powder until smooth, then whisk in milk and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Beat together butter and brown sugar until fluffy, then add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture and cocoa mixture in batches, beginning and ending with flour and mixing at low speed until just combined. Divide batter among pans, smoothing tops. Bake 30 to 35 minutes for 7-inch pans; 20 to 25 minutes for 8-inch pans. Cool in pans on a rack 30 minutes, then invert onto racks, remove paper and cool completely.

Ganache: Bring cream to a simmer and remove from heat. Whisk in chocolate until smooth. Transfer ganache to a bowl and chill, covered, stirring occasionally, until thickened but spreadable, about 4 hours. If ganache becomes too thick, let stand at room temperature until slightly softened.

Assemble: Spread 2/3 cup ganache between layers, chilling if necessary to keep spreadable consistency. Chill cake until filling is firm, about l hour. Spread a thin layer of ganache evenly over top and sides to seal in crumbs; chill 30 minutes. Spread remaining ganache over top and sides.

Notes: Both layers and ganache can be made a day ahead and kept wrapped and chilled. Let ganache stand at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours before assembling cake. After assembling the cake will keep covered and chilled for 3 days.

YOU CAN'T JUDGE A CAKE BY ITS COLOR

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