Chocolate Beetroot Cake

Special welcome to Angie who's come to visit and stay with me in London.  She wanted a cake with chocolate and preferably something slightly unusual so I decided on a chocolate beetroot cake. I've made it previously into a cupcake and I really enjoyed the flavour and texture. I used a different recipe this time and it turned out better than I expected.  I think you can actually taste the beetroot flavour and it gives a lovely richness to the colour and texture of the cake. The ganache is chocolatey and smooth and complements the cake very well. 

Apologies as I've been too busy to bake or blog recently... shock horror...but I do have quite a few posts to blog about as I had a bit of a baking frenzy before Angie's visit so do check back later for more goodies :) 

 blitz the beetroot

 add to batter 

 fresh from the oven

 chocolate ganache 

 ice the cake 

 my fav glitter gel writing

For the cake

250g cooked beetroot

100g dark chocolate

125g butter

250g light brown muscovado sugar

3 medium eggs

50g cocoa powder

225g self raising flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the chocolate ganache

150g plain chocolate

140ml sour cream

60g icing sugar, sifted

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Grease and line a 22cm cake tin.
• Melt chocolate over pot of simmering water and set aside to cool. 
• Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. 
• Beat butter, eggs and sugar until pale and mousse like.
• Blitz the beetroot.
• Add half the beetroot and half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and fold through 4-5 times. 
• Add remainder of the beetroot and dry ingredients and fold through until smooth.
• Pour into the cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• To make the ganache, put all the ingredients into a bowl and set over simmering water.
• Allow to melt but don't let it get too hot.
• Remove from heat and stir vigorously until you have a smooth glossy mixture.
• Leave to cool and thicken.
• Spread over cake with a palette knife and decorate as desired. 

Chocolate Beetroot Cupcakes

February seems to have whizzed by so quickly. It's time for the Iron Cupcake challenge again and this month the challenge was 'the perfect pair' (any 2 flavour combination) I gave it a little thought and decided to make chocolate and beetroot which I have been wanting to try for a little while. If you are a chocolate lover like me, then this cake is right up your alley. It has a lovely moistness and texture from the beetroot without overpowering the chocolate. The original recipe suggested a chocolate fudge topping but I thought this would be way too much chocolate as the cake is quite rich. I therefore opted for a little splash of whipped cream instead.

Cupcakes (Note: this recipe makes 20 large muffin sized cupcakes, approx 33 small cupcakes)

250g good quality 70% chocolate

3 large eggs

250g dark muscovado sugar

80g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

25g cocoa powder

50g ground almonds

200g raw beetroot, finely grated

100ml buttermilk

30ml sunflower oil

Whipped cream (optional)

• 
  
  Preheat the oven to 160C
• 
  
  Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a metal bowl over a double boiler to melt. If you don't have one, place the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
• 
  
  Cream the sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy.
• 
  
  Mix the buttermilk, beetroot, oil and melted chocolate and stir this into the egg mixture.
• 
  
  Add the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, bicarb of soda, ground almonds)
• 
  
  Spoon the batter into cupcake/muffin cases about 3/4 full.
• 
  
  Bake for 35 mins until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• 
  
  Top with whipped cream or frosting of your choice.