Chocolate and Beetroot Cake

Want a cake that is chocolaty, moist and still somewhat good for you?
Look no further than this Chocolate and Beetroot cake.

I have sourced this recipe from the lovely team at The Nutrition Guru and The Chef. If your looking for healthy recipes then that’s the place to go (they also have a recipe for a mean sweet potato chocolate cake.. YUM)
I’ve made this cake a few times now and it gets the thumbs up from everyone (even men who in a million years would never eat beetroot, let alone beetroot in a cake).

Ingredients

• 85 grams dark chocolate
• 3 medium eggs
• 300 grams coconut sugar, or rapidura sugar which are both low GI sugars. Or you can simply use brown sugar  (I used natvia which uses stevia. I use a little less of this as its quite sweet)
• 240 ml olive oil/melted coconut oil
• 300 grams cooked beetroots (see method below for how to cook the beets)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1tbsp vanilla essence)
• 30 grams cocoa powder ( I used cacao powder)
• 200 grams almond meal (or plain flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (or gluten free baking powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

• Pre heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
• Cook the beetroots- wash thoroughly and place in a pot full of cold water. Bring pot to the boil and cook the beets until soft when poked with a knife (approx 30 minutes though this depends on the size of the beets).
• When cooked, run the beets under cold water in the sink and rub off the skins.
•  Blend or mash the beetroots until slightly smooth but still some ‘chunks’ remaining.
• Melt the chocolate (85grams) over a double boiler (I place the chopped chocolate in a pyrex bowl, and place in microwave on low for approximately 1-1.30 minutes until chocolate has just melted.) Mix well to get rid of all the lumps.
• 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.
• Beat just until combined. Don’t over work it.
• Sift the cocoa. Add this and the almond meal (or plain flour), baking powder and salt to the beetroot batter.
• Fold just until everything is combined. Don’t over mix the batter.
• Spread a teaspoon of butter or oil over the surface of a 10 inch cake pan. Sprinkle some flour all over, and tap out the excess. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin. You can also grease the cake tin and use baking paper if preferred but the almond meal/flour gives it that homely look.
• Bake for approximately 50 minutes.
• 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.

While the cake is baking, work on the  frosting:

Ingredients- Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 cup cream/reduced fat cream
• 1 cup of  reduced fat cream cheese- I use Philadelphia ‘5% fat’
• ½ cup Icing Sugar or honey- I use natvia icing sugar which uses stevia
• Plain dark chocolate bar for chocolate shaving decorations

Method- Cream Cheese Icing

1. Place the cream in a bowl and whip to soft peaks.
2. Add the icing sugar and cream cheese and beat until combined (Add more or less sugar until the desired taste).
3. You can also use variations of this icing, by adding 1/2 cup cocoa or half a cooked blended beetroot.
4. Using a potato 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.