Stubborn, Yet Convincable

In my final years of college, I made myself a fruit smoothie every day before heading to work. I purchased pre-packaged frozen fruit (oh, the luxury!!!) at Trader Joe’s and typically combined several to create my daily drinkable breakfast.

Trader Joe’s sold berries, pineapple and mango. Out of the three, mango was the cheapest. However, I did not like mango. Being the stubborn girl that I am, I decided since it was the cheaper fruit (now, really I am talking maybe 20 cents cheaper per bag!) that I was going to like it. Everyday, I added chunks of frozen mango to the blender, sort of cringing when I did. The mango taste always came through and day after day I would drink it, telling myself that I was going to drink it till I liked it! When I got to work each day, my boss would ask me if I had added mango to my smoothie and if I liked it yet. Daily I would say, “Yes, I added it. No, I didn’t like it yet.” Stubborn.


I like mango now. It is one of my favorites. I love crunchy Kent mangoes when they are still green dipped into Peruvian salt. Yum!

My friend Karen started her blog Veggie in My Cake to talk about just that – veggies in her cakes. I was impressed by the beans she has added to cookies, the spinach to brownies, and the numerous veggies she gets into her cakes. One day, we were talking about beets. I know beets are good for you. When I look pale, people tell me to drink beet juice. But, I *really* dislike beets. But, I cannot help but wonder if I could convince myself to like them?

So, for my first attempt, I added them to a cake. I have seen a bunch of recipes for chocolate beet combos, but I thought that was too much. I wanted to see the beet even though I really didn’t want to taste it! I had seen a recipe using shredded beets and when I couldn’t locate it again, my trusty Cooking Light came through again.

This presentation of beets (the vegetable I still dislike, but should like) is for the last installation in 2007 of Weekend Herb Blogging. Weekend Herb Blogging is currently in its third year as a food blogging event and was created by Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen. This week, Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted by Astrid of Paulchen's Food Blog and the event will begin again in 2008 with Kalyn as the host.

Shredded Beet Cake

2 cups of shredded fresh beets
2/3 cup of granulated sugar
2/3 cup of packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 1/2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine the granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well-blended. Add beets; mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour batter into a pan coated with cooking spray or cupcake liners. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on wire racks; remove from pans. Frost with a cream cheese frosting. Store cake loosely covered in refrigerator. Cooking Light, March 2001.