Monday 6 June 2011

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

On Fridays, I often bring home-made treats to work. However, for the past few weeks I haven't been bringing anything for no reason. Last Friday, I came to the office a bit late because I had a meeting somewhere else in the morning. But rumour had it that I have been baking. When I finally got to the office, guess what, there's no cake...

People were disappointed and I was given this look of disgust by several colleagues. I am also apparently blamed for staff's malnutrition problem and I have no right to appeal against this case. If they think they can get me into playing the guilt game, well, they succeed.

I bought some beetroot over the weekend. To be honest, I just need one beetroot, but ended up buying the bunch. Have I told you I had a problem with self-control? Anyway, that's a different subject to discuss.

With the leftover beetroot, I baked this chocolate beetroot cake. Strange that with the amount of beetroot going in the cake, you can't really taste it, but it blends beautifully with the cocoa and somehow keeps this rich chocolate cake wonderfully moist.

The recipe below calls for 28 cm cake tin, I don't have one, so I used one of those disposable square tin instead. Worked just fine. I brought the cake to the office and everyone's happy...

I am off to London tomorrow then Paris the next day until the weekend. Have a great week ahead! I know I will.


Chocolate Beetroot cake
Recipe from Canteen - Great British Food
Makes a 28 cm cake

4 eggs
230 g caster sugar
350 g cooked beetroot, peeled
165 ml sunflower oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
150 g plain white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
40 g cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting
200 g white chocolate chunks
butter, for greasing

Preheat the oven to 160 C. Whisk together the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and thick. In a food processor, blend the beetroot with the oil and vanilla extract until smooth. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder into a bowl.

Whisk the beetroot into the egg and sugar mix, then gently fold the sifted dry ingredients. Mix in the white chocolate. Butter a 28 cm cake tin with a removable bottom and line the bottom and side with baking parchment. Pour in the cake mixture and bake for 40 - 50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool. When cold, remove the cake from then tin and dust the top with cocoa powder.

15 comments:

  1. oh delish, I really want to try this!

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  2. yum! sounds yummy! you should try nigel slater's recipe too...it has poppy seeds in! enjoy your time in paris...sigh

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  3. wow cool cake bet you were popular that day :-)

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  4. Never tried beetroot in cake but yours turned out perfect and yummy!

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  5. Man it's nice to be in England to just hop over to France, Spain and Italy... Jealous!
    Hey I've got some beetroot nudge too recently. Not sure why. I reckon chocolate and beetroot would do well. I mean beetroot tastes pretty much like a potato or starchy root vege when cooked. And all of these are just great when drizzled with chocolate. What doesn't really...

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  6. LOL... I love how co-workers can guilt you into bringing goodies - happens to me a lot too!
    I've not had beetroot before, but if it goes with chocolate, sign me up!!
    Have a safe and fun trip!

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  7. love this cake soooooo much!... totally yummy and glad the disposable cake tin worked, thats a good thing to know!

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  8. This cake sounds scrumptious. I've been wanting to try a cake with beetroot in it. I may just try this recipe.

    I totally understand what you mean by self control too. I am very much the same way when I'm shopping... especially for food.

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  9. This cake looks so good! I love beetroot (or beets as my American heritage wants to call them) and I use them in everything I can.

    I like to think if I add beetroot to a recipe for sweets then it's good for me. :)

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  10. hmm, this looks good. I had a bit of a disappointment with my first and last beetroot cake- the recipe required grated raw beetroot, but it really didn't cook and so left a bit of a stringy texture (not like raw grated carrot in carrot cake at all). This could be the cake to get me back on the wagon, thanks Michael.
    On another note, don't forget to visit Rose Bakery while you're in Paris! And have an olive oil and vanilla macaron from Pierre Herme for me. You won't regret waiting in line one single bit. Sometimes they even bring you chocolates to sample :)

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  11. This looks so GREAT! I had some beetroot brownies before and boy..they were good. This one sounds even better with the addition of white chocolate!

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  12. Can't really blame your colleagues for their show of disgust...you've been spoiling them rotten all this time, Michael! LOL. This chocolate beetroot cake looks moist with a hint of red, and I bet it tasted really good. Glad to hear your Paris trip was fab, and now off you go and enjoy yourself heaps in Medan! Come back with some Indonesian recipes :-).

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  13. It looks so moist and great I am going to bake today. Thanks

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