Golden Beet Orange Cake
Golden Beet Orange Cake is super moist and flavorful. With a hint of roasted beet flavor behind the orange, this usual cake is as tasty as it is beautiful.
I’m so excited about this recipe. The idea for this cake had been simmering at the back of my mind since I picked up our last farm share in November. All winter I’ve had one last bunch of beets hanging around the refrigerator. This week I finally got around to roasting those beets. The chioggia beets ended up in a salad. The golden beets were destined for this cake.
It was a no-brainer to use my Chocolate Orange Beet Cake recipe as the starting point for this recipe. I knew I would use fresh orange again since beet and orange are a match made in heaven.
It was a simple 1:1 swap to replace the golden beet puree for the red beet puree. Almond flour replaced the cocoa in the batter. Either cocoa or almond flour can replace a portion of flour in most cake recipes so this was an easy switch.
Without the acidic cocoa and brown sugar, there is no need to use baking soda along with baking powder. There’s a little acidity in the batter from the orange juice, but the cake works just fine with only baking powder. The final touch is an orange glaze to finish.
This really is an easy recipe. Once the beets are roasted and pureed, everything is made in one bowl, no creaming , no folding or whipping. The beets can be roasted several days ahead.
How to make Golden Beet Orange Cake
- Wash the beets and trim the roots. Wrap in foil and bake at 350 until tender.
- Peel the cooled beets and puree with the orange juice until smooth.
- The thin batter has a beautiful golden color.
- Pour the glaze over the slightly warm cake.
- You can leave the glaze with a drip design or scoop up the glaze from the sheet pan and apply it to the uncovered areas.
- Let the cake cool and the glaze set before moving to a serving platter.
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Golden Beet Orange Cake
Ingredients
Cake Batter
- 8 oz golden beets (roasted and peeled (see note 1))
- 1 orange (zest and juice)
- 18 oz granulated sugar (2 ¼ cups)
- 10 ½ oz vegetable oil (1 ½ cups)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- 4 ½ oz cake flour (1 cup, see note)
- 5 oz all purpose flour (1 cup)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- 2 ½ oz almond flour (½ cup)
Orange glaze
- 6 oz confectioner sugar (1 ½ cups)
- 1 orange (finely grated zest)
- 1 ½ oz orange juice (3 tablespoons)
Instructions
- Generously butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan. Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
Cake Batter
- Puree 8 oz golden beets with the juice and finely grated zest from 1 orange. You should have 1 ½ cups of puree (add orange juice to bring it up to 1½ cups if needed).
- Combine 18 oz granulated sugar, 10 ½ oz vegetable oil, 4 large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon orange extract in a mixer bowl. Beat on medium low for 2 minutes to emulsify the oil and eggs.
- Sift together 4 ½ oz cake flour, 5 oz all purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and ½ teaspoon table salt. Whisk 2 ½ oz almond flour into the dry ingredients.
- With the mixer running on low speed, alternate adding the dry ingredients and the beet puree to the egg mixture. Scrape the bowl between additions.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the center springs back when lightly pressed or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs, about 45 minutes.
Make the glaze
- Whisk together 6 oz confectioner sugar, finely grated zest from 1 orange and 1 ½ oz orange juice. The glaze should have the consistency of pancake batter.
Finish the cake
- Cool for 10 minutes in the pan before inverting onto a cooling rack set over a clean sheet pan.
- Pour the glaze over the cake while its still slightly warm. You can scoop up the glaze from the pan and reapply to uncovered parts of the cake or you can leave the glaze with a drip pattern.
- Cool to room temperature and allow the glaze to set before transferring to a serving plate. The cake will keep at room temperature for 4-5 days.
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I have some golden beets sitting in the fridge and this is exactly the kind of recipe I was looking for! What is the purpose of the almond flour and is there an appropriate substitute? I just don’t have any. Thanks!
As I mentioned in the post, I used almond flour in place of the cocoa that is in the original Chocolate Beet Cake recipe. If you don’t have almond flour you can use an extra 1/2 cup of cake flour instead. That would bring the total amount of cake flour to 1 1/2 cups (6.75 oz).
Hi,
In your recipe you call for baking powder, however in the directions you call or baking powder. Could you let me know which one I am supposed to use, please.
Thank you,
Carrie
Thanks for pointing that out. It’s been fixed.
Golden beets, what a perfect ingredient for a unusual cake. Great idea, I can’t wait to try this!
So interesting! I’ve never thought to put beets in a cake but I’m guessing it makes the cake super moist!
Yes, the beets make the cake super moist and give it a really great flavor and color.Thanks, Christine!
Very unique flavors! Love it.
Thanks, Erin.