crazy surprise cake

i accidentally deleted the text for this post while trying to edit it. so, here goes again.

on principle, i love any dessert recipe with words like "crazy" "surprise" or "mystery" in them. this recipe is a hybrid of two such recipe. one is a great depression era recipe that is vegan by way of thrift, before vegan was a concept in the west. the other is a zany recipe probably from the 1940's, when housewives were making mayonnaise cakes and such. the resulting recipe is vegan and contains beets.

contrary to what you might be thinking, this cake is delicious!! i am starting to prefer it to my regular chocolate cake (mostly because it is equally as good, but i can pretend it is 'healthy', but also because it doesn't use up precious eggs and butter).

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil (soy or canola)
2 Tbs white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 can of beets, pureed, plus enough water to make 2 cups (usually about 1/4 c)

prepare your pans and preheat your oven to 350 f.
this makes a 9 x 11 glass pan, 2 8" rounds, 1 tall 9" round or a good size batch of cupcakes.
1. mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. make 3 'wells' in the dry ingredients. into each well add one of the following: oil, vinegar, vanilla
3. pour the beets over the top and mix with a spoon (or a mixer on low) until just blended.
4. pour into your prepared pans and bake until a skewer or knife comes out clean, about 22-26 minutes depending on pan size, or 18-20 minutes for cupcakes

this makes an excellent lava-type cake if slightly under baked, and no half-cooked eggs to be paranoid about.

if you're lucky enough to have homegrown beets, or you want to use fresh beets because indeed they are inherently more nutritious than the canned variety, just peel a couple of good sized ones, cube or slice them and cook until tender. then puree with some (maybe 3/4 c) of the cooking liquid to make 2 c.

i recommend a ganache for this cake, especially dark chocolate

1 c chocolate chips (dark, semi-sweet, milk, reese's, butterscotch or white)
AND
for white chocolate, reese's, butterscotch chips 1/2 c heavy cream or 1/3 c + 1 T (scant 1/3 c) coconut milk --OR-- for regular chocolate: 2/3 c heavy cream OR 1/2 c + 1 T (that's a scant 2/3 c) coconut milk

1. mix the chips with the liquid in a small saucepan and heat over low, stirring frequently, until melted and smooth.
2. cool to the proper consistency for however you're going to apply it. i like to wait about 1/2 hour and pour while it is pretty thick for nice drips. or, you can wait until it cools almost completely and spread or pipe it on. in the photo at the top, i cooled it until spreadable and applied it to the sides of the cake to hide the layers, then put it back on the stove for a minute to heat it back to pouring consistency for the drippy effect.

a neat little aside for this ganache: if you substitute 2 T of the liquid called for above for 1 T liqueur of your choice (grand marnier is VERY good here), prepare as stated, then refrigerate until very thick but not completely set, you can roll it into balls and coat with sprinkles/powdered sugar/cocoa powder etc to make delicious truffles.