Chocolate and beetroot cake
Beetroot and chocolate is a wildly underestimated combination. This cake is light, moist and has an amazing earthy undertone. A heavenly taste duo.
What you’ll need
250 g beetroot
200 g (2 slabs) dark chocolate, broken into bits
4 tablespoons hot strong coffee
200 g butter
1 heaped cup cake flour
a heaped teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
5 eggs
1½ cups caster sugar
This is how you do it
Cook the beetroot, whole and unpeeled, in boiling unsalted water. Drain them, let them cool down completely and peel. Puree the beetroot in a blender. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof glass bowl over a pot of simmering water.
When the chocolate looks almost melted, pour the hot coffee over and add the butter. Gently stir to mix. Sift together the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Separate the eggs. Put the whites in a large mixing bowl. Stir the yolks together.
Remove the bowl of chocolate from the heat and quickly stir in the yolks. Fold in the beetroot. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold in the sugar. Now fold the beaten egg and sugar mixture into the chocolate mixture.
Use a metal spoon and gently fold it in by deeply drawing a figure of eight with the spoon. Do not over-mix. Fold in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into a greased and lined 20 cm baking tin and put in a preheated oven of 180˚C. Immediately turn down the heat to 160˚C and bake for 40 minutes. The centre should still be slightly wobbly.
Leave to cool in its tin until it is completely cold. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy!
