Chocolate Beetroot Cake

[The Mouse]

I've just made this for the first time, and I think it's well worth making if, like me, you're a chocolate addict and always on the lookout for ways of using up the surplus veg - (or ways of getting one over on veg-hating youngsters)!!!

The recipe comes from TimesOnline.

Ingredients:

50g bitter cocoa powder
180g plain flour
1½tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
250g caster sugar
300g cooked fresh beetroot
3 eggs
200ml corn oil
1tsp vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 180C/Gas mark 4. Butter and flour an 18cm (7in) round or square cake tin.

Sift the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and salt 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 corn oil and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the beetroot mixture into the well. Lightly mix, using a rubber spatula, and pour into the prepared cake tin.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. It won’t rise a great deal and the top may crack a bit. Allow to cool a little before removing from the tin, then leave to cool completely on a wire rack. To serve, dust the cake with icing sugar or bitter cocoa powder, and cut into generous slices.

Enjoy - and let me know what you think of it

[The Mouse]

I forgot to say:
Firstly, I found that I needed to use a larger tin than suggested.
Secondly, it needed longer to bake.
Finally, I don't have a liquidizer so I chopped the beetroot quite finely (you could grate it if you prefer), then poured on the oil and zapped it with my hand-held blender before beating in the eggs!

[Primrose]

Caz - we've just tried this recipe this afternoon. But instead of making a cake, we poured the mixture into little paper cases resting in a muffin tin and cooked Chocolate Beetroot muffins. You couldn't taste the beetroot at all. I think any chocoholic would enjoy this recipe although it was just a little too sweet for my taste. Next time we'll reduce the sugar slightly and perhaps add some dried blueberries for a more luxurious version.

[The Mouse]

Hi Primrose

My lot said they could taste the beetroot, but they saw me making it so knew what I'd used. My son only had one piece. He never actually said he didn't like it, but he said that putting beetroot - or any other veg for that matter - in a cake was just plain WRONG

I'm pretty sure that if they hadn't known, they would have eaten the whole lot before it had even cooled down, as usual

Anyway, I liked it - so rich and moist (What, no emoticon to show licking of lips?)

[Primrose]

We were debating last night how we could make this mixture taste slightly less 'dry' and I realised that I had loads of mixed soft fruits in the freezer so next time instead of the beetroot I might compote an equivalent amount of this and whizz it with the stick blender to see what it turns out like.

[The Mouse]

Hi Primrose!

Strange, my first attempt at this cake was so moist!

However, I've just make a second one, and it wasn't nearly as moist - though it still was definitely not dry. I also noticed that there didn't seem to be nearly as much batter going into the tin this time!

The only thing I did differently this time was the way I prepared the beetroot. The first time, I used frozen beetroot, and I didn't even wait for it to thaw fully before I chopped and zapped it. This time I used freshly cooked beetroot and grated it while it was still warm. The frozen beetroot must have had a much higher water content than the fresh.

However, as I said, the second cake was still moist enough.
I wonder, in your case, could the fact that you made individual cakes have made them dryer? I'll be interested to know how you get on next time. Keep experimenting - it's the best excuse in the world for making / eating lots of chocolate cake

[Primrose]

Actually Caz, it was my OH that made the cake, I was just an interested observer. (We have a rule in our house that I generally grow the stuff and he cooks it as this panders to our preferred individual activities). Our beetroot was cooked in water in the microwave and chopped into purree in our mini food processor whilst still warm, so you could be right about both the frozen beetroot having more water, and our individual cakes being drier because more of the surface was exposed to the heat than would have been the case in a larger cake.
It's very interesting to compare notes, so next time we make it (although I wasn't a great fan of it) I'll come back and post again.