Beets and goat cheese have been a go-to flavor combination for years now, but we’ve never seen a sweet take on it quite like this. Traditional red velvet cake is made with beets, which is how it gets its trademark deep color. Cream cheese frosting is typically used for red velvet cake, but as many of us know, goat cheese is often considered a healthier substitute for cream cheese. How come we didn’t think of this? Genius!

So now I’d like to take a fine, fine Southern tradition, Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing, and let it evolve with me. I created this recipe for Free People’s blog, and it’s the perfect cake for the season as we know it today, all beating heart red & rich with cocoa. But along with the canned gestures, an entire bottle of chemical dye in my cake also doesn’t turn me on. This cake, instead, gets its deep hue from earthy beets (you can’t even taste them…not that it would be a bad thing if you did), and the icing is made of local goat cheese.

Get the recipe on Local Milk

Rebecca Haley-Park

Rebecca Haley-Park is culture's former editor and resident stinky cheese cheerleader. A native New Englander, she holds a BFA in creative writing from University of Maine at Farmington.