Friday, April 13, 2007

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.

2 comments:

Cindy said...

Thank you! Beetroot has recently entered our kitchen for the first time (in soup form) and I'm keen to experiment. Will let you know when I've tried it.

Lucy said...

I'd completely forgotten about this recipe. I used to make it all the time. God, it's so good.

Having lost the book in one of my many house-moves, I'm so pleased to see it here Melinda! Thank you very much indeed...