Baking a beetroot cake had been on my mind for a long time, almost right from the winter started. But a little clumsiness and frequent re-prioritizing habit of mine kept me away from this lovely cake.
I love baking with fruits and vegetables. Not just they give a depth to the basic flavor of vanilla or chocolate, but they keep them well moist for long enough. It’s a different thing that they don’t last long.
And when I saw Daring Baker’s challenge for this month, I reassured to myself that this time, it has to take priority and there’s noway I am going to miss the challenge this month. Truly speaking, it was easy for me this time, as I knew the recipe already and my half of the job was done.
Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!!
It was Nigella Lawson’s dark chocolate cake with beets, which I fell in love with because of it’s dark, moorish character. Dark and earthy flavor gets mellowed down with a bit of roasting the beets in the oven. Add them to the chocolate cake batter and you help the chocolate cake to accentuate the dark flavor. I am sure you must have got the idea by now, what I am talking about. Nigella’s recipe uses corn oil, which I replaced with my obedient extra virgin olive oil, all because I didn’t have corn oil at hand. It also suggests to frost the cake with chocolate ganache, which I didn’t feel the need of.
Ingredients
175 gm plain flour
2 tbsp baking powder
75 gm cocoa powder
225 gm caster sugar
3 eggs
225 gm raw beetroot
200 ml extra virgin or light olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 250 degree Celsius. Wash the beetroots and wrap them individually in aluminium foil and place them in oven for about 25 minutes.
- Let beetroots cool down to room temperature. Once good to handle, peel the beets and puree them in a food processor/liquidizer/blender.
- Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius and prepare a 8 inch spring form baking pan.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and cocoa powder together in a bowl and keep aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, oil and beetroot puree.
- Fold the flour mixture into the wet mixture. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely on a wire rack.
This was my first Daring Bakers challenge and I was so excited to see what the challenge was! I had made chocolate beetroot cupcakes, but mine very dry. I think I may have overbaked them. Then I tossed those out and made a chocolate zucchini bundt cake. Your cake looks delicious! I love that you didn’t overdo it by adding chocolate ganache. Sometimes some things are better left simple 🙂
Bravo for your first DB challenge! Yeah true, somethings are better left simple.
What an elegant and delicious looking chocolate cake! I love recipes made with olive oil – it creates a lovely moist cake crumb (not to mention being dairy free which is always a bonus!) Thanks so much for taking part this month 🙂 Rx
Thank you Ruth for giving this challenge!
Gorgeous job! Your cake looks very decadent and moist! A perfect way to hide beets! 🙂
Thank you so much. Actually it was quite light and moist and chocolatey enough for an adult.
The cake looks divine! Great photos!
Thank you 🙂
Re-prioritizing habit – I like that, it sounds better than my procrastination habit! 😉 This cake looks so dark and chocolatey and delicious, I’m glad you took the chance to make it!
re-prioritizing is another form of procrastination Korena 😉 I liked your beet velvet very much.
Beet and chocolate that has been on my list of things to bake forever.. I’ve been intrigued.. I didn’t know Nigella had a recipe.. her recipes are always a winner.. and your pics make it look soo good!!
Chocolate and beetroot is a nice pairing. I have tried few of her recipes and they’ve come out very delightful. 🙂
Oh my my…what a gorgeous cake! I can eat it all by myself:-)
Thank you 🙂 this is all for you.
Finally i tried it.. It was good for me though. Its even more delicious with maple syrup & a scoop of vanilla icecream 😉
Happy to know that you tried it and found it good 🙂
ah! loved this one! shall try making an eggless version of it and nice blog as well!cheers!
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday and he loved it. The beetroot gives it a decadent taste (like it is full of butter and chocolate) without all the saturated fat!
This looks so delicious and such a light take on normal chocolate cakes! I love finding recipes like this that use just a few simple, natural ingredients to make something rich and delicious. I’m going to try making a vegan version of this. Thanks for the inspiration!
Looks great! Just having a browse to find cake-spiration and came across your page. Beautiful pictures!