You can't "beet" this cake

So my oldest child, Laura Lee, turned 20.  Wow.  No longer a teenager.  This makes me feel really old.  She came in from college in Baton Rouge to celebrate her birthday and we went out to a scenic restaurant in Lake Arthur called Regatta and had a nice meal and then returned home for a special cake that Tricia made.  So what in the world is the farm tie in to a birthday cake, you ask?

Well, Laura Lee requested a red velvet cake, but we had a slight problem.  We had no red food coloring in the pantry and we don't really like to add artificial flavorings or colorings to anything we eat, if we can possibly avoid it.  Well, it just so happens that we have fresh beets that we are harvesting right now.  Beets are red.  Red velvet cake is red.  Coincidence?  I think not.  Tricia googled and found a recipe online for Red Velvet cake using beets.


Peeling the beets

Once the beets were peeled, sliced, and processed, they went into the moist cake and provided the wonderful red color and great flavor too.

Just look at the rich red color!

I won't bore you with each step of the cake baking, but it was a resounding success and was enjoyed by all. 

The finished product - You can't beet it!

My Mom and Dad dropped by to wish the birthday girl Happy Birthday and enjoyed cake with us.

Tricia poured sparkling Ginger Ale in champagne flutes to add some formality to the celebration.  You can see on the edge of the coffee table that we're sending my Mom and Dad home with some of the Dewberry Jelly we made the other night.

 Here's my kids with Mom & Dad:

 And here is our family with the birthday girl.


Smiles everyone.  Smiles!

And here is a close up of the cake.  We confirmed a little later that "You can indeed have your cake and eat it too!"  We also got a kick out of telling Benjamin to come eat his vegetables (those vegetables being cake). 

Happy 20th Birthday, Laura Lee!

Tune in tomorrow where we'll show you how we made ice cream with cabbage.  I'm just kidding...