Beet Velvet Slice with Tangy Citrus Frosting
Friday, April 9th.
I'd been wanting to make this recipe since the very beginning, the picture just looked so vibrant and stunningly pleasing. The description is also interesting—that she learned about how to make "cakes" like this one from an internship she did at a raw food restaurant. I am definitely interested in doing doing such an internship after this challenge... in fact I have a whole bunch of things I've been introduced to that I'd love to explore. I'll hopefully write a post about possible next steps when the challenge is done.
She writes, "Making impossibly rich desserts out of fruit, nuts, oils, and extracts was nothing short of a revelation to me at the time." Yes, me too! This is what I have been learning!
What was I going to do with the two hunking red beets I'd gotten at the farmers market—that had now been sitting in the fridge for almost two weeks? As it turned out the thought of a beet smoothie was currently turning my stomach.
When I checked them, the beets were still hard, though didn't smell that earthy—fingers crossed they were still on the cusp of being okay to eat. I could make this beet slice! Hopefully they would still taste good... and not ruin this glorious "cake."
I ended up starting making this at a weird time: after dinner on Friday night, around 7:30. The cake itself is naturally sweetened with dates, which I pulsed first with water to make date paste. Then I transfered that to a large bowl and combined it with everything else—it was very simple, and a short ingredients list.
The only hold up: grating those darn beets!
This turned out to be quite the challenge. I peeled them first, cut off the tip of one end, leaving the stem end in-tact for gripping—high IQ right there. As it turns out, using a mandoline grater was going to take hours... so I brought out the handy box grater. What made it so tricky was that the beets are hard to grip—even with having the stem—and I had to keep a tight hold on them for literally forever. Grating beets is sloooooooooow.
In fact, I was gripping to be so hard, and was so intently focused at grinding away at the beet: up and down and up and down; it was not until I was reaching the end that I noticed. Little bits of the soggy dark green leaves on the stem end had fallen from grip and were mixed in with the lump of shredded beets. aaaaaah!
I did what I could to pick them out... but there were a lot, and they were tiny, and I was tired. And I still had one more beet to go. Which thankfully, didn't have the same problem because there were no leaves on the stem.
If the beet slice tasted a bit off, I blame it on those gross bits of stem.
I had macadamia nuts already soaked and ready for the frosting, so I just went through with making it. After I pressing down the cake to even it out in the loaf pan, I covered it and placed it in the fridge while I made the frosting.
The frosting was quick and uneventful—thank goodness. Involving a blending in our much-loved blendor. That too had to refrigerate—for an hour, before frosting and another refrigeration—and when I put it in the fridge, it was already almost 8:15. I would not be getting to taste this creation until tomorrow.
Oh, but the chef taste-tasted her frosting, and surprise, surprise: it was utterly delish!
I took these pictures on Saturday, actually, because there was a bit of a hold-up.
How it turned out: I loved it. It was moist, dense, and tasted sweet and a little tangy—a great combination to be slowly savored with a tiny fork, or spoon. While the cake might have tasted a little off (I didn't dwell), the frosting just made it. so. good.
I'll definitely make it again, with fresh beets, and no grating mishaps, and at a proper time to be enjoyed promptly! I'd say the labor of grating the beets is worth it.
Hope you're having a beetiful week :)))
The Veg Out Gal.