Beetroot & Chocolate Birthday Cake

On sunday was my lovely hubbys birthday. Once again, like every year, there is fair bit of celebration. Friday was dinner with friends, saturday dinner with his family and sunday we went our for brekky with my family. I had a wonderful weekend and I know he did too. I baked two cakes year, a Hummingbird with cream cheese icing and this Beetroot & Chocolate Cake. I have never made this before but had heard the combination was great, so I looked on the internet for a recipe I felt I could follow and we ended up with a very tasty cake, even if I say so myself! The colour of the batter beats a red velvet anyday and the taste of the batter..oh my!! The baked result was dense and delicious and I smeared a good thick layer of cream cheese icing ontop which makes good things even better! Here is the recipe, taken from this website. Enjoy!



You will need:

• 85 grams Dark Chocolate
• 3 medium Eggs
• 300 grams brown sugar
• 240 ml butter, melted
• 300 grams Cooked Beetroots (see method below for how to cook the beets)
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (or 1tbsp vanilla essence)
• 30 grams Cocoa Powder
• 200 grams Almond Meal (or plain flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (or gluten free baking powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Method

• Pre heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
• To cook the beetroots, wash thoroughly and place in a pot full of cold water. Bring pot to the boil and cook the beets until soft when poked with a knife (approx 30 minutes though this depends on the size of the beets).
• When cooked, run the beets under cold water in the sink and rub off the skins.
• Blend or mash the beetroots until slightly smooth but still some ‘chunks’ remaining.
• Reserve the water that you cooked the beetroots in (it will be bright red!) and re-use to cook rice, lentils etc (it will turn rice a lovely fun red colour).
• Melt the chocolate (85grams) over a double boiler (or place the chopped chocolate in a bowl, cover with cling film and microwave on low for approximately 1 minute until chocolate has just melted. When you remove from the microwave, stir quickly to melt any pieces that are still solid).
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and butter.
• Slowly add the cooked beet puree , the melted chocolate and vanilla into the egg mixture.
• Beat just until combined. Don’t over work it.
• Sift the cocoa. Add this and the almond meal (or plain flour), baking soda and salt to the beet batter.
• Fold just until everything is combined. Don’t over mix the batter.
• Spread a teaspoon of butter or oil over the surface of a 10 inch cake pan. Sprinkle some flour all over, and tap out the excess. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake tin.
• Bake for approximately 50 minutes.
• Cake is ready when a tooth pick or skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Baking time may vary depending on the pan and oven you are using.
• Remove from oven and leave to cool in the pan.

While the cake is baking, work on the  icing:

Ingredients for the cream cheese icing (optional)

• 1 cup cream
• 1 cup of Cream Cheese
• ½ cup Icing Sugar or honey
• Plain chocolate bar for chocolate shaving decorations

Method:

• Place the cream in a bowl and whip to soft peaks.
• Add the icing sugar and cream cheese and beat until combined (Add more or less sugar until the desired taste).
• You can also use variations of this icing, by adding 1/2 cup cocoa or half a cooked blended beetroot.
• Using a potato peeler, hold the chocolate bar in one hand and use the peeler to shave off curls of chocolate. Sprinkle these on top of the cake to decorate.

I have copied this recipe and method straight from their website as it is so easy to understand. Let them know (and me) if you make it!

Button Swap News:
The vintage button swap entries are now closed and if you entered you should have recieved your partners details. Let me know if you havent!
I'm already planning/thinking of another swap I might do later in the year, so stay tuned for that. It won't be button related, but pretty paper related!

Anyway, happy monday, see you soon.

Taz xx