Golden Beet Cake With the Best Cream Cheese Frosting🔥🍽️
Active Time
1 hour 40 minutes
Total Time
2 hours 15 minutes
My great-grandmother’s carrot cake is hands down, my all-time favorite cake. This recipe is based on that one but uses yellow beets in place of carrots—they’re a little earthier (but milder than red beets) and give the cake a comparable savory base. A trio of floral but still warming spices (coriander, fennel, and cardamom) stand-in for Mamaw’s lone choice of cinnamon. I also prefer the bright pop of jarred sour cherries in juice instead of the candy-red maraschinos she relied on. If you can’t find jarred sour cherries, then frozen sour cherries, thawed, work too—just make sure to thaw them in a bowl to catch their juices as they defrost since they also go into the cake.
The icing here is a twist on ermine, an old-school frosting made with softened butter whipped with a cooked paste of flour, milk, and sugar. I add in cream cheese to make it tangy. It’s less sweet than most frostings, with a texture I can only describe as being like enriched whipped cream. It spreads onto cakes more easily than powdered sugar-sweetened frostings and holds up well if you want to keep the cake around for a few days in the fridge.
Ingredients
12–16 servings
Cake
Step 1
Place rack in middle of oven; preheat to 350°. Butter two 8"-diameter cake pans. Line bottom of pans with parchment paper rounds and butter parchment. Toast almonds on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing halfway through, until golden brown, 6–8 minutes. Transfer one third of almonds (½ cup) to a small bowl; set aside. Sprinkle coriander, cardamom, and fennel over remaining almonds on hot baking sheet and toss until spices are fragrant, about 30 seconds. Transfer to another small bowl; set aside.
Step 2
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl to combine. Beat eggs, oil, sugar, and 2 Tbsp. cherry juice in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium speed until combined, about 2 minutes (a whisk and a large bowl also work). Reduce speed to low and add half of dry ingredients; beat until mostly combined. Add remaining dry ingredients and beat until just a few steaks of flour remain. Using a rubber spatula, fold in cherries, beets, and reserved spiced almonds until evenly distributed and any remaining flour streaks are incorporated. Divide batter between prepared pans and smooth surface.
Step 3
Bake cakes until tops spring back when lightly pressed and a tester inserted into the centers comes out clean, 40–45 minutes (cake will be well browned). Transfer pans to a wire rack and brush or drizzle 2 Tbsp. cherry juice over each cake. Let cakes cool 20 minutes in pans. Run a knife or small offset spatula around edges of cakes and invert onto rack. Peel away and discard parchment paper rounds. Turn cakes right side up and let cool completely.
Do ahead: Cakes can be baked 2 days ahead. Wrap tightly and chill, or freeze up to 3 months.
Frosting and assembly
Step 4
Whisk sugar, flour, and salt in a medium saucepan to combine. Whisking constantly, pour in milk gradually to avoid lumps. Set over medium-high heat and cook, whisking often and scraping corners of pan, until mixture begins to thicken, about 4 minutes (slow bubbles will begin to form as the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan). Reduce heat to medium and cook, whisking constantly, 1 minute to cook off any floury taste. You should have a thick, glossy paste resembling rubber cement. Remove from heat and let cool, about 1½ hours. (If you’re worried about floury lumps, pour hot mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl, pushing through with a heatproof rubber spatula.)
Step 5
Transfer sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. With motor running, beat in vanilla extract and almond extract (if using) on medium speed, then add butter, a piece at a time, beating until combined after each addition before adding more; repeat process with cream cheese. Turn off mixer, scrape down sides of bowl, then beat frosting until fluffy and lump-free, about 4 minutes. (Cover and chill until cold if you’d like the frosting firm enough to pipe decorations onto the finished cake.)
Step 6
Place a cake layer on a cake stand or plate. Top with 1½ cups frosting and spread to edges in an even layer. Place second cake, bottom side up, on top. Scoop 1 cup frosting on top of second layer and spread over top and sides until entire cake is covered in a thin layer (if bits of cake are still showing through, that’s fine; this is only your crumb coat). Chill, uncovered, at least 1 hour and up to 1 day to firm up.
Step 7
Briefly beat remaining frosting to lighten, then scoop onto cake. Spread in an even layer across top and down sides of cake. Use an offset spatula or bench scraper to smooth sides and top. Sprinkle reserved toasted almonds in a cluster in the center of the cake.
Do ahead: Sugar mixture can be made 3 days ahead; press plastic wrap or wax paper directly onto surface and chill. Let sit at room temperature 20 minutes before using. Frosting can be made 3 days ahead; cover and chill. Beat to lighten before using, about 4 minutes.