Beet Chocolate Cake

One of the things I greatly look forward to in Autumn is the abundant availability of beet. To be honest, Sydney is a city where you could buy pretty much any fruit or vegetable round the year (maybe costly though), but there is something about beets that I associate with winters as a child. I loved beets since I was little. However, my kids don’t. Unless its hidden inside a beet cake or turned into a relish, served in a delicious burger. A few years ago, I wouldn’t even tell them there were beets in the cake and they would go for it as they would go for any chocolate cake. Now even though they know it, they really don’t mind. The great thing about a beet chocolate cake is that you don’t taste the beets if you use a good dutch processed cocoa powder. And the cake benefits from the texture and nutrition of the beets.

The Beet Chocolate Cake is very simple to put together and uses a bit of dark chocolate as well as cocoa powder to give it that chocolately taste. What I like the most is that you don’t have to melt the chocolate separately. I’m always happy with recipes that don’t need too many dishes and pans 🙂 Typically most beet cakes will have a no-brainer chocolate frosting. I wanted to do things differently so I’ve used a vanilla buttercream to frost it. Chocolate-Vanilla classic combination! I’ve used a teeny-tiny juice from my cooked beets to tint the buttercream into that gorgeous pink colour. You’re of course free to use a food colour instead if you are not sure of the beet juice.

If you’d love to explore more delicious chocolate cakes try out this Easy Chocolate Cake with Raspberries 

Beet Chocolate Cake 
Makes a 7 inch round cake 

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup castor sugar
60 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1 and 1/2 cups cooked and pureed beetroot (from 2 medium beets)
3 eggs, lightly whisked
1 and 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa

Vanilla Buttercream
125 g unsalted butter, softened
1 and 1/2 cups icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk (depending on how thick or light you want the buttercream to be.
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp beet juice or 1-2 drops pink food colour (optional)

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Grease the base and sides of of a 7 inch round cake pan. Line the base with baking paper.

In a medium saucepan, warm the oil over low heat. Add the sugars and chocolate and stir gently until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and add the cooked beets and mix.
Cool the mixture slightly (about 15 minutes), then add the eggs and whisk. Pour in the flour and cocoa powder and stir to mix.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 5 mins, then turn onto a wire rack to cool till room temperature. Once cooled, frost with vanilla buttercream and decorate with sprinkles.

To make the Vanilla Buttercream, with an electric mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter in a medium bowl till smooth and fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar little at a time and continue to beat until well combined. Add the milk and beat till desired consistency is reached. Add the beet juice or food colour (if using). Mix. Fill up a piping bag with a closed start tip and pipe swirls onto the cake. Alternately you could spread the frosting on the cake with a spatula. Decorate with sprinkles. Enjoy!