Chocolate Beetroot Cake
An earthy, interesting flavour combo that is a crowd favourite
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 300 g cooked beetroot (see method), or pre-cooked whole beetroot from supermarket This recipe won't work with tinned beetroot
- 85 g dark chocolate
- 3 medium eggs
- 2 cups caster sugar (or coconut, raw, brown sugar also give great flavour)
- 1 cup olive oil or melted butter (or sunflower, or coconut oil)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cacao or cocoa (either will do)
- 200 g almond meal
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Cake Icing
- 1 cup cream
- 1 cup cream cheese
- ½ cup icing sugar (or honey
- Plain chocolate bar for chocolate shaving decorations
Instructions
Cake Method
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius, and grease and line a 20 cm spring form cake pan
- To cook the beetroots, wash thoroughly and place in a large pot full of cold water. No need to peel. Alternatively, you could use pre-cooked beetroots (available at supermarkets in the fruit and vegetable section) which saves the step of cooking. Do not use tinned beetroot.
- Bring the pot to the boil and cook the beets until soft when poked with a knife (approximately 30 minutes though this depends on the size of the beets)
- When cooked, drain the water and run the beets under cold water and gently rub off the skins.
- In a large bowl, blend (or mash) the beetroots until slightly smooth but still some ‘chunks’ remaining.
- Now melt the chocolate. You can use a double boiler, or place a small saucepan containing the chocolate, over the top of another saucepan full of boiling water. Over gentle heat, melt the chocolate until only-just melted. Alternatively, place the chopped chocolate in a bowl, cover with cling film and microwave on low for approximately 1 minute until chocolate has just melted. When you remove from the microwave, stir quickly to melt any pieces that are still solid
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and oil
- Slowly add the cooked beet puree, the melted chocolate and vanilla, into the egg mixture. Stir well to combine, but take care not to overwork the mixture.
- Sift the cocoa and add this, the almond meal, baking powder and salt to the beet batter.
- Fold mixture until everything is combined. Again, don’t over mix the batter, you want to keep it light and fluffy
- Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for approximately 50 minutes. Please note: Dependent on the water content of the beetroots you have used, you may need to increase the cooking time to up to 1.5 hours. If the cake is not cooked at 50 minutes (skewer does not come out clean) return to oven and keep cooking, checking at 10 minute intervals.
- Cake is ready when a tooth pick or skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Baking time may vary depending on the pan and oven you are using.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the pan.
Icing Method
- Place the cream in a bowl and whip to soft peaks form
- Add the icing sugar and cream cheese and beat until combined (Add more or less sugar until the desired taste).
- You can also use variations of this icing, by adding 1/2 cup cocoa or half a cooked blended beetroot.
- Optional: Using a vegetable peeler, hold the chocolate bar in one hand and use the peeler to shave off curls of chocolate. Sprinkle these on top of the cake to decorate