1 pound beets (5-6 medium sized)
3 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar (can reduce sugar about by half if less sugar is desired)
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ teaspoon baking soda

Boil beets until tender. Drain, but ensure to save about ½ cup of the cooking liquid. Peel beets, roughly chop and place all in a blender or food processor. If it is not mixing well add enough of the cooking liquid to make a nice puree.

Measure out 1 ¼ cups of beet puree.Preheat oven to 350F. In a large mixing bowl, place eggs and sugar and mix well. Mix in beet puree. Next add the vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Sift together the salt, flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda. Mix in the dry ingredients until all is well incorporated
Place the cake mixture in a well greased cake pan either 9 or 10 inches in diameter. Bake the cook for about 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the cake. Let cool and then garnish with your favourite chocolate icing recipe. If desired, once the icing is on, further garnish with very finely chopped walnuts or hazelnuts.

Notes: This cake is moist and rich. The moistness comes from the beets and will stay very moist for 2-3 days. The richness comes from the chocolate icing. It does not need the icing and can simply be garnished with a dusting of icing sugar. I have found that if dark red beets are used you get a hint of their flavour whereas if made with yellow beets you achieve the same moistness but lack the hint of the beet flavour.