Chocolate Beetroot Cake

I know; two chocolate cake posts in a row! But after acquiring a metric ton of beetroot from my in-laws’ farm it would have been silly not to make a cake with at least some of it.

Chocolate and beetroot might be a classic cake combo but it was a new venture for me and the girls. Whereas the end result is a deliciously fudgey chocolate cake, the batter is very much grated veg floating in egg and sugar so the bowl-licking was unusually brief for once!

In all seriousness this is our new favourite chocolate cake, so much so that we’ve made two this week alone. It’s great covered in chocolate buttercream or iced with fondant for a celebration like this version for my mother-in-law’s birthday.

You will need an 8″ deep cake tin, well greased or lined with baking paper.

Ingredients

• 250g cooked beetroot (grated)
• 100g dark chocolate broken into pieces
• 50g cocoa powder
• 100g caster sugar
• 150g soft brown sugar
• 250g self raising flour
• 200g butter
• 3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, using short bursts of 20 seconds in the microwave and stirring well in between.

As with the majority of cakes we make, there’s more madness than method in the making. The best advice I can give is start with butter and sugar and you can’t go far wrong from there…

Mix the butter and sugars until well combined before adding the beetroot, and eggs.

Add the chocolate, flour and cocoa powder and mix well to form a thick batter.

Pour into the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before decorating.