Chocolate beetroot cakes

chocolate beetroot cakes

I’ve been searching for the perfect chocolate cake recipe forever, so it seems anyway, and I may just have found it at last. Beetroot seems to be the ingredient of the moment and I think I first heard of it being used in chocolate cake in a recipe in The Great British Bake Off last year. I didn’t fancy the idea much but I felt the same about carrot cake when it first became popular in Britain.

Then Nigel Slater did a beetroot cake which looked good but unfortunately it includes dried fruit and of course Jack hates sultanas, raisins, anything like that – he calls them ‘blisters’. I toyed with the idea of substituting chopped dates as he doesn’t mind those, but then I found this recipe on the BBC Food website and these cakes are just about perfect. They feel quite heavy but they aren’t heavy in the stomach, the weight is all due to the lovely moist texture of the sponge.

I didn’t have corn oil so I used sunflower oil. Cooked beetroot can be bought in vacuum packs at the veggie section of all supermarkets.

Ingredients

75g/2½oz cocoa powder or powdered drinking chocolate

180g/6½oz plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

250g/8½oz caster sugar

250g/8½oz cooked beetroot

3 large eggs

200ml/7fl oz corn oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

icing sugar for dusting

Preparation method

Preheat the oven to 180C/355F/Gas 4. Arrange paper muffin cases in a 12-mould muffin tin.

Sift the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder into a bowl. Mix in the sugar, and set aside.

Purée the beetroot in a food processor. Add the eggs, one at a time, then add the vanilla and oil and blend until smooth.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the beetroot mixture and lightly mix. Pour into the muffin cases.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is firm when pressed with a finger.

Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar to serve.

I used a non stick muffin tin for mine but if you only have fairy cake cases that will be fine, it just means you’ll get more of them as they’re smaller. In the future I think I’ll split the muffins and fill them with cherry jam and cream, and maybe even have a cherry on top!

10 thoughts on “Chocolate beetroot cakes

  1. Sounds interesting – haven’t a clue re: beetroot. I know what beets are, and they are a root… =?

    And fairy cake? Are those the tiny cupcakes (muffins)? I was under the impression that fairy cakes = cupcakes. (My favorite is ‘ice lollies’ = popsicles.)

    I made a killer chocolate Guinness cake for this St. Patricks’s day…husband liked it so much it was is birthday cake request this year. It was choclaty without being cloyingly sweet.

    • Pearl,
      I tried a Guinness cake recently, was yours a Nigella recipe involving sour cream? I tried that one but forgot the sour cream, I knew I’d forgotten something at the supermarket! Anyway I substituted evaporated milk but I think that’s why it wasn’t a success. The ‘boys’ said it was a waste of good Guinness! Jo says beetroot is known as red beet in the US.
      Yes fairy cakes are just like cupcakes without the very sweet toppings that cupcakes tend to have. That recipe calls for paper muffin cases I think but I’ve never seen those but my muffin tin was fine for them, no sticking!

  2. I love Beetroot cake, anything Beetroot is good with me!

    Not tried this particular recipe but will save it for later. Trouble with Beetroot is the colour it leaves on everything if you are not careful!!

    Peggy Ann, Pearl I think you might know it as red beet?

    • Jo,
      The beetroot colour is a nightmare, I was very careful to avoid even dripping any on a worktop. It makes it a lot easier when you can get it pre-cooked, I’d hate to have to peel it all. It never occurred to me that it was known as red beet in the US!

    • Peggy Ann,
      I think it must be what you call vegetable beets, the ones which have a very red juice which dyes everything! We don’t get it in cans, only vacuum packed or pickled but you definitely wouldn’t want to use the pickled ones for a cake!

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