Just BEET it!

Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal faithfully are His delight. - Proverbs 12:22

Vegetables are great.  I absolutely love them.  I'll admit, though, that kids don't exhibit the same exuberance for them.  Notice the next time your child lifts the lid off the pot of Brussels sprouts, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower or beets that are simmering on the stove.  You'll likely see long faces.  Today, we'll talk about a sure fire way to make the vegetable vexation vanish.

It is hard to disguise vegetables.  You're not going to fool your child into thinking that broccoli is a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.  As our Scripture verse shown above testifies, it's not right to lie.  But what you can do is incorporate vegetables into dishes that your kid would NEVER refuse.  Take the lowly beet.  It is a root crop that is not romanticized much.  There's a lot of potential there other than steaming or pickling.

Below is one beet in a row of Bull's Blood Beets we are harvesting in our garden. These beets are called Bull's blood because their stem and leaves are the deep, rich color of a bull's blood pooling on the ground. Not a nice or appetizing visual, I know, but stick with me.

The Bull's Blood Beet

We've found a nice way to use beets in making a Red Velvet Cake.  The recipe is based off of one similar to this one on foodandwine.com: Recipe for Red Velvet Beet Cake  We altered the recipe by combining several different recipes we found online.

You'll need 1 and 1/2 cups of pulverized beets from beets that you've harvested peeled and cooked.  So start out by slicing the beets and cooking them in a little bit of water. Once cooked and cooled, puree them in a blender.

Cooking beets then pureeing them

Once you've pureed the 1 1/2 cups beets, combine with 1 cup melted butter, 1/2 cup milk (we used our homemade buttermilk), 2 teaspoons yogurt, 1 teaspoon vinegar, 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice, and four eggs.

In another bowl, mix your dry ingredients, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/3 cups sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Mix your dry ingredients with the beet mixture.

Adding the beet puree to your batter

Butter and flour and line with parchment paper 3 eight inch cake pans.  Pour your batter in and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.  Pull out and let cool.

Letting the 3 layers of the cake cool off

For the frosting, cream together 8 ounces of cream cheese and 1 stick butter at medium speed with a hand mixer.  Then beat at low 16 ounces of powdered sugar, then at high setting until smooth.  Then frost your cake.  If you want to get fancy, top your cake with chocolate covered strawberries.

The Icing on the Cake!

Then it is time to cut the cake and enjoy.  Beets in a cake?  You better believe it!

We destroyed this cake!

As parents we didn't lie or deceive our children into eating this cake.  As they say, "The proof is in the pudding!"  The taste of the moist, delicious cake won them over and is why we make this each year during the beet harvest.