Friday morning tea - chocolate beetroot cake

Among my thousands of recipes, I must have at least one hundred recipes for chocolate cake. Although they are probably all variations on a theme (after all, most of the cakes consist of varying quantities of flour, milk, butter, eggs and cocoa or chocolate), I persist in collecting them and aim to try them all at least once (yes, I do realise this will probably be a life-time commitment!)

Recently, Cindy from Where's the Beef tagged me to participate in a vegetable meme. In it, I was asked if there was a vegetable that I hated as a child but loved as I got older. My response was beetroot and in my answer I mentioned that I had once made a chocolate beetroot cake. Cindy was keen for the recipe, so I share it with you today for Friday morning tea. The recipe came from Jill Dupleix, who seems to love chocolate cakes as much as I do. The cooked cake is a slightly weird burgundy colour but the cake has a lovely moist texture.

CHOCOLATE BEETROOT CAKE

50g bitter cocoa
180g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
250g caster sugar
300g cooked fresh beetroot
3 eggs
200ml corn oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Butter and flour an 18cm round or square cake tin.

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

Puree the beetroot in a food processor. Add the eggs, one at a time, then add the corn oil and vanilla extract 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 tin. Bake for about 40 minutes (or until a skewer inserted into centre of cake comes out clean). The cake won't rise a great deal and the top may crack a bit but it won't affect the flavour. Allow to cool a little before removing from the tin, then leave to cool completely on a wire rack. To serve, dust with icing sugar or cocoa.