Ingredients

Cake:
• 3 medium beets, unpeeled but trimmed of their greens
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 6 ounces (3/4 cup) unsalted butter(at room temp)
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used half dark cocoa and half regular)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
Frosting:
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 8 ounces (1 brick) cream cheese (at room temp)
• 3 - 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3-4 tsps beets (from the blender)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 tsps milk or whipping cream
• 1/4 of a lemon squeezed

Instructions

Beets
1. Preheat oven to 375 (I cranked mine to 400 after an hour)
2. Thoroughly wash beets under running water, and trim their leaves (I saved these for dinner - yum)
3. Toss clean beets in pyrex dish with some foil. Drizzle with just a bit of olive oil. Seal up with some more foil.
4. Roast until beets are tender when pierced with a knife, about 1 hour - 1.5 hours. Remove the beets from the oven. Let the beets cool completely then dive in and peel these suckers. Yes, your hands will be red BUT they will return to normal with soap and water.
5. Once cooled and peels, chop up the beets in quarter or whatever and toss in the blender with a touch of water. Measure 1 cup of pureed beets for the cake and 3 tablespoons for the frosting. Set aside (You'll have left overs).
Cake
6. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
7. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
8. In a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and both sugars. Beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
9. Beat in eggs, one at a time, for one minute after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
10. Once eggs are incorporated, beat in beets and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.
11. Add half of the dry ingredients to the butter and egg mixture on low. Slowly add the buttermilk. Once just incorporated, add the other half of the dry ingredients. Beat on medium speed until milk and dry ingredients are just incorporated. Don't over mix...
12. Bowl can be removed from the mixer and mixture folded with a spatula to finish incorporating ingredients. It's a thick batter - you'll need an ice cream scooper.
Frosting
13. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Taste it to make sure it no longer tastes like just butter. good.
14. Add lemon, vanilla, beets and milk or whipping cream. Continue beating until fully combined.
15. Add the cream cheese last and beat until fully incorporated. Be careful not to over beat, cream cheese tends to get super loose if it's played with too much.
16. Taste it - make sure it's good. If not, try a touch more vanilla or beets or whatever. Make it your own :)