Beetroot chocolate dream
Ingredients
- 200g quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
- 250g cooked beetroot, drained
- 200g plain flour
- 200g unsalted butter, melted
- 100g dark brown sugar
- 100g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- icing sugar for dusting
- mixed seeds to decorate
- For the chocolate buttercream:
- 300g unsalted butter, at room temp
- 420g icing sugar
- 70g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 75ml double cream
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
- Grease and line a 23cm loose bottomed cake tin.
- Break the chocolate into pieces, place in a food processor and blitz until crumbed (not powdered). Tip out into a small bowl.
- Put the beetroot in the food processor and whiz to a purée.
- Add all the remaining cake ingredients, whiz until well mixed, and stir in the chocolate pieces.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin and level out the surface.
- Bake for 45-50 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean (the surface of the cake may have cracked a little).
- Allow to cool for a few mins in the tin before removing to a cooling rack.
- For the buttercream, put the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until creamy.
- Add the icing sugar, cocoa powder, cream, salt and vanilla extract and beat together (add more icing sugar or cocoa powder if it’s too thin, or more cream if too thick).
- Cut the cake in half horizontally and sandwich the two halves together with a third of the icing, then spread the rest on top and over the sides.
- Decorate as you wish – we used a few pumpkin seeds, almond halves, dessicated coconut and dehyrdrated berries.
