Chocolate Beetroot Cake

Beetroot, a vegetable full of rich, damp, earthy aromas is not an ingredient you would associate with baking. A salad yes but a cake?! 

Well, strange as it may sound beetroot and dark chocolate actually make the most perfect bedfellows. Those earthy smells just melt away leaving a delicious sweet cake.

With all this good weather my late planted beetroots have done really well and are now ready to be transformed into cake! 

I used a recipe from the 'delicious magazine' website just click here to read more. I did not make the icing but the recipe is shown below if required. 

If you want a cake with 'wow' factor click on the link and follow this recipe from Joy the Baker

Ingredients

250g dark chocolate, broken up
3 large eggs
200g light muscovado sugar
100ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g self-raising flour
a pinch of salt (not in the original recipe)
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
50g ground almonds
250g raw beetroot

For the icing
150g dark chocolate
100g icing sugar
100g soured cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Grease a 22cm round, loose-bottomed cake tin with a little butter and line the base with baking paper.

2. Place the dark chocolate in a bowl and set over a pan of gently simmering water. Allow the chocolate to melt slowly until smooth, then set aside to cool.

3. Place the eggs, sugar and sunflower oil in a large mixing bowl and whisk together, using an electric hand whisk, for about 3 minutes until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in vanilla extract, then sift over self-raising flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and gently fold in, together with the ground almonds.

4. Using a pair of rubber gloves to protect your fingers from staining, peel and grate the beetroot, then squeeze out the excess liquid. Fold the beetroot into the mixture with the cooled chocolate, until thoroughly mixed.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour. Cover with foil if the cake browns too quickly. Test the cake by inserting a skewer into the centre to see if it comes out clean. Cool for a little while, then remove from the tin and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

6. For the icing, place 150g dark chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water. Allow to melt gently until smooth. Set aside to cool, then beat in icing sugar and soured cream until you have a thick, creamy and spreadable icing. Spread it over the top and sides of the cooled cake and serve.