Beet Oreo Cakes

I've been feeling culinarily challenged lately. What's the point in telling you about the same old dinners all the time? And the internet is annoyingly spotty in my apartment, making it hard to upload photos and post regularly.

But a couple weeks ago I did host two dinner parties, both lovely. I had some extra time to get ready for the second one, so I decided to experiment with using beets in baking. I was aiming for brownies with edges by baking them in cupcake tins, but they really came out more like dense little cakes, not quite fudy enough to be brownies. I also added some oreo crumbs leftover from my last baking endeavor to make an amazing crunchy topping that really set these cakes over the top. The hint of beet flavor made these cakes rich, moist, complex, (and slightly reddish). I'll definitely be using beets more often in my chocolate goods.

adapted from here

Beet Oreo Cakes
about 4 small beets
3.5 oz dark chocolate
6 tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup crushed oreos
1 tbsp butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350. Boil beets with skins on until fork tender. Let cool, peel, and then puree in a food processor. You should have about 3/4 cup of beet puree.

Melt chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, stirring until melted completely. Set aside to cool.

Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Whisk in eggs, then chocolate, and beet puree. Add flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder, and beat until smooth.

In a smaller bowl, make oreo topping by combining crushed oreos and butter until butter is incorporated.

Pour batter into two greased muffin pans. Sprinkle oreo topping over each cake. Bake for approximately 20 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean. Enjoy!