
Chocolate and Beetroot Cake
Chocolate and Beetroot Cake this recipe by Jamie Oliver is great to bake with the kids – and adding a vegetable too. Flavour-wise beetroot is sweet, which is why it works really well in cakes even though it’s a vegetable. You can grate it by hand using a box grater, if you prefer, depending on how much time you have
Prep Time 50 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 40 minutes
Servings 16
Ingredients
- olive oil
- plain flour for dusting
- 300 g good-quality dark chocolate 70% cocoa solids
- 250 g raw beetroot
- 4 large free-range eggs
- 150 g golden caster sugar
- 120 g ground almonds
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 tablespoon good-quality cocoa powder
- natural yoghurt to serve
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
- Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 20cm springform cake tin with olive oil. Use scissors to cut out a circle of greaseproof paper, roughly the same size as the bottom of the tin, and use it to line the base.
- Dust the sides of the tin lightly with flour, then tap the tin to get rid of any excess.
- Break 200g of the chocolate into small pieces and add to a heatproof bowl.
- Place the bowl on top of a small pan of simmering water over a medium heat, making sure the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water, and allow to melt, stirring occasionally.
- Once melted, use oven gloves to carefully remove from the heat and put to one side – beware of the steam when you lift up the bowl.
- Use a Y-shaped peeler to peel the beetroot (you might want to wear gloves to do this), then quarter them on a chopping board.
- Push the beetroot through the coarse grater attachment on the food processor, then tip into a large mixing bowl.
- Separate the eggs, placing the whites into a large clean mixing bowl and adding the yolks to the beetroot, then wash your hands.
- Stir the sugar, almonds, baking powder, cocoa powder and melted chocolate into the beetroot and mix together well.
- Use an electric hand whisk to whisk the egg whites until you have stiff peaks.
- Use a spatula to fold a quarter of the egg whites into the beetroot mixture to loosen, then once combined, fold in the rest but try not to over-mix.
- Add the mixture to the prepared cake tin and spread out evenly using a spatula.
- Bake in the hot oven for around 50 minutes, or until risen and cooked through.
- To check if it’s done, stick a cocktail stick or skewer into the middle of the sponge, remove it after 5 seconds and if it comes out clean the cake’s cooked; if it’s slightly sticky it needs a bit longer.
- Allow the cake to cool slightly, then carefully turn it out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When you’re ready to serve, melt the remaining chocolate (in the same way as above), then serve each slice with some yoghurt and a little drizzle of the melted chocolate.