Devil’s Food Beet Cake

Though, as the years pass, I find myself favoring more family-centric, “togetherness” holidays, when I was a kid nothing held a candle to Halloween. I think that’s probably the case for most people as well, still hopelessly nostalgic for a holiday in which they’ve been pushed out of the main activity on the bias of age. I don’t know why adults can’t go trick or treating. At 5’6”, I’m tempted to don a mask and try my luck.

While my trick or treating days are tragically behind me, as hard as that is to admit, my Halloween routine has deviated little else since childhood. Here’s a sample rundown of my October each year…

1. Decorate parent’s house for Halloween with my comrade-in-halloween brother.
2. Start planning costume (party plans not yet required).
3. Watch Hocus Pocus twice in a row (no more, no less). Place DVD high atop shelf, out of reach of destructive nephew.
4. Buy Halloween candy for Trick-or-Treaters (must have Kit Kats & Twizzlers).
5. Get invited to one Halloween party. Breathe sigh of relief that I am still socially relevant.
6. Re-buy Halloween candy after regrettable binge.
7. Panic buy pumpkin at last minute. Start with low expectations for outcome. Carve signature crazy scary face in approximately 5 minutes. Be satisfied with outcome due to low expectations.
8. Attend Halloween party.
9. Nurse hangover (a more recent, but reliable tradition).
10. Halloween Night: get very excited for first trick-or-treater to arrive. When first knock on the door occurs, have unexpected rush of anxiety and make someone else answer the door for small talk with children.

And then repeat next year. The one thing I did not mention, as it changes by the year, is any Halloween baking. Some years that means making those Funfetti cupcakes from the box. They taste like chemicals but that kind of adds to the Halloween-ness (I tell myself). This year, on my vintage kick, I was inspired by a few images of orange-frosted Devil’s Food Cakes with piped, black Halloween motifs like witches and black cats. I went with the black cats because I had a cookie cutter to use as a stencil for the piping.

I set out to research the provenance of Devil’s Food Cake and I actually got a lot of mixed results as to what specifically makes a chocolate cake “Devil’s Food”. Some sources said more baking soda, so lighter in texture. Some said no milk, use water. The answer I was most satisfied with is that it is a cousin of the Red Velvet cake, and some early recipes call it “Red Devil’s Cake”. I ended up adding a beet puree to my favorite chocolate cake recipe and called it a day. It’s rich, beautifully reddish-brown, and has the slightest hint of earthy, beet flavor. Plus you really can’t go wrong eating a couple extra vegetables this time of year. You know, moderation and all that.

Happy Halloween!!!