“The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious.”~Tom Robbins
The idea of putting vegetables into cake is, quite frankly, pure genius. Because, you know, it instantly makes them health food to be eaten with not a scrap of guilt.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
We get an organic vegetable box every week and sometimes at the end of the week I am left with a couple of items I’m just not sure what to do with. Oh, I know, I could have roasted my leftover beetroot, but when I was pregnant and vomiting a few times EVERDAY for the entire time, I was also going through a stage of eating roasted beetroot (over supply from my mother). So much that my pee changed colour one week! Eeek! Like a lot of things I ate frequently while pregnant, I not get a little be squirrelly at the thought of eating roast beetroot.
I found this recipe on Taste.com and them proceeded to add twice as much cocoa and less flour. I was actually trying to adjust the quantities so I could cook it in my slice tin. Why? Every week I bake something with the kids that becomes a treat. I needed it to be in a form that could be cut into small, easy to hold portions for my littlies. This turned out perfect.
It also stopped me from portion distortion. Not that eating a lot of this cake is a problem since it is health food, right? 😉
The true test of this cake’s yumminess? My friend’s husband ate it and thought is was really good. He absolutely detests beetroot.
What you need:
- 150-200g (about 2) trimmed beetroot, washed
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 50ml water
- 3/4 cup, firmly packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs, lightly whisked
- 1/4 milk
- 60ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil OR 40g melted butter + 1 tbsp oil
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3/4 cups self-raising flour, sifted OR plain flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
What to do:
- Pre-heat your oven to 180 degreeC (160 fan forced).
- Cut beetroot into quarters and then roast in the oven until a tender (doesn’t have to be really soft, though).
- Left beetroot cool a bit and then trim the skin off, and put in a blender with the water and oil. Blend until the beetroot is very finely chopped. More so than what grating would produce.
- In a mixing bowl (electric mixer is best) place the eggs, vanilla and beetroot mixtures. Combine thoroughly.
- Combine the dry ingredients and then sift into the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined.
- Bake in a lined slice tin (mine is 27 x 18cm) for about 25 minutes, but really keep an eye on it. You don’t want to dry it out!
- I iced my cake with cream cheese, cocoa and a little bit of icing sugar blended up. I did that part by taste. I don’t like my frosting to be very sweet. I also like my chocolate to be a little bitter….
thisgirlinmotion 2.0 