Beet me

Tomorrow is a birthday in the house, so we had a brunch today for which cake was needed. A friend and I recently baked a red velvet cake, which is why a red-velvet-cheesecake sounded even better. Instead of using fake food colouring I thought the colour from the beets would make it equally red. Alas, no. Whatever. It still tastes quite nice. Not sure if red velvet will ever become my favourite, but it is worth trying different recipes and  finding out which ones are a success and which ones should rather not be tried again. 

You can find the recipe on Recipe Girl, the cheesecake itself is quite delicious. Instead of the red food colouring, I baked four beets in the oven with the cheesecake ( saving energy and preserving more colour than when boiled), then I peeled their skins of, cut them in small pieces and puree-d them. It helped to add a teaspoon or so of water. I guess that if you want the cake a proper red, go for the food colouring. But if you have some objection to fake colouring, go for the beet. You don't taste it too much, but the cake looks more brown than red due to the cocoa powder that is added. I wonder if one could leave out the cocoa and just add the beets? Or would the flavour then be too strong? Hmm.