Don’t let the idea of putting beetroot in a cake put you off – you don’t taste the beetroot but, together with the addition of rapeseed oil and yoghurt, it gives this cake a lovely moist texture. Add the chocolate and icing and you end up with a wonderfully rich, fudge-y flavoured cake. A great Easter bake that packs a delicious chocolate punch !
Ingredients
- 100ml rapeseed oil
- 175g cooked beetroot (not in vinegar)
- 175g dark soft brown sugar
- 200g self raising flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 1tbsp baking powder
- 200g fat free natural yogurt
- 2tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
For the Icing
- 100g dark chocolate no more than 39% cocoa butter (I use Cadbury’s Bourneville)
- 100ml double cream
- A little extra chocolate to chop into flakes for decoration
Method
- Heat the oven to 180C/160CFan/Gas 4
- Grease and line a deep 20cm either loose-bottom or springform cake tin
- Put the beetroot into a food processor and blitz until it becomes a puree
- Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until well mixed
- Scoop into the prepared cake tin, smooth out, giving the tin a gentle shake until the surface is level
- Bake in the centre of the oven for approx 50 mins to 1 hr or until a skewer comes out clean
- Leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before icing. Turn the cake so that you ice the flat bottom
- To make the icing simply break up the chocolate into a saucepan, add the cream and heat gently stirring occasionally until all the chocolate has melted. Be careful not to boil the mixture. Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so until the icing thickens and looks like it is beginning to set. Pour the icing slowly over the cake, gently smoothing as you pour so that the icing trickles down the sides
- Top with some chocolate flakes and serve – it is delicious served with cream as a dessert.
Pauline Mardell
