Difficulty: Easy-Medium
Serves 8-10
I never really understood the concept of putting beetroot in a cake and the thought that it could be delicious completely escaped me. That was until I actually started seeing pictures of them pop up. I became curious. It was my sister-in-law’s birthday this week so as the resident birthday cake maker I decided to finally set my sights on that once disregarded beetroot chocolate cake. It was excellent! You can’t really taste the beetroot but it adds so much moisture and depth to the cake. This one is gluten free too but just double check your ingredients just to be sure. Oh, and if you want a little more sweetness, pop a little icing sugar in your icing (I don’t really think it’s needed though).
Ingredients
- 3 medium beetroots
- 1 cup dark Belgian chocolate buttons
- 2 cups gluten free plain flour
- 1/3 cocoa powder
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1/3 cup ground flax seeds
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup raw caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tub Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
- 1 cup dark Belgian chocolate buttons
- Shaved chocolate to decorate
Method
- Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a springform pan.
- Bring a large pot of water to the boil and cook beetroots until soft (30-40 minutes should do it).
- Remove from the pot, rinse in cold water and rub the skins off. You may want to use a peeler to get the stubborn skin.
- In a food processor, puree the beetroot but leave a couple of chunks in there.
- Melt 1 cup of the chocolate buttons and add to a bowl with the beetroot.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, flax seeds, almond meal, baking powder and baking soda.
- To the beetroot, add the oil, sugar, vanilla and almond milk.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and combine really well, the mixture will be quite thick.
- Pour into the greased tin and spread out evenly. Bake for about an hour, or until a skewer comes out relatively clean.
- Once cooked, allow to cool completely before icing.
- Melt the second cup of chocolate buttons and allow to cool a little.
- In an electric mixer, whip the cream cheese for a minute or so before adding the melted chocolate and icing sugar if you want extra sweetness. Combine until blended evenly.
- Spread the icing over the top of the cake and sprinkle with grated chocolate before serving.
