Are there enough Chocolate-Beetroot recipes out there? Yes.
Does the blogosphere need one more? Probably not.
Am I going to post one anyway? Yes.
Am I excited about my brand new lens? The one that AK bought yesterday, ostensibly for me to use (for blog pictures) but it’s actually to use during our wedding shoots? Yes. Very.
Could not wait to break it in. So what did I do? I baked a cake. Which AK ate 3 slices of, before he realised there was a healthy vegetable in it. So I guess it’s been a good day.
But, seriously speaking, when I decided to bake a celebratory cake today, I thought of chocolate. It just fits and makes all kinds of sense. Beetroots were not on my mind. When I looked in the fridge to pull out eggs and milk, I spotted 3 boiled beetroots and was instantly reminded of a version of red velvet that I’ve been wanting to try, using beets instead of synthetic food colour. But since I didn’t have the patience to go the whole hog today, frosting and all, I decided to make a simpler version of the chocolate-beetroot combination. A mildly sweet but flavourful tea cake of sorts.
It was a first for me, and I was not disappointed. AK ate 3 slices, even after a very heavy meal. What more can I say about the success of the experiment?
Here’s what I used for a 9″x5″ loaf cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup powdered white sugar (the cake was mildly sweet and did well with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of maple – but feel free to up the sugar by another 1/4 cup or more)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup milk
1/2 cup beetroot puree (boiled/ roasted beetroots – peeled and pureed as smoothly as possible without adding water)
1/2 cup walnuts
1 tsp vanilla essence
Pinch salt
Here’s how I made it:
First I turned on my oven to pre-heat at 150 C. Then I peeled and pureed the beetroot.
I placed all the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisked them together to mix — flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa. I reserved 1 tbsp of the flour to toss with the walnuts later.
I measured out the walnuts, broke them up into small pieces (about 4-5 pieces per walnut) and tossed them in the reserved 1 tbsp of flour. This helps to prevent them from sinking through the batter while baking.
Once the dry ingredients were mixed well, I added the egg, the oil, the milk, vanilla and beetroot puree.
I mixed all this using the mixer on medium speed, just until combined. Then I added the walnuts and mixed using a spatula.
Looks a lot like red velvet batter huh? Trust me, it’s better!
I transferred the batter into my prepared loaf pan — greased, lined with butter paper and then greased+floured again.
I popped this in the oven for about 30 minutes. When I tested it with a toothpick, it came out with a fair amount of batter on it so I reduced the heat to about 135 C and gave it another 15 minutes.
Pulling it out of the oven, I let the cake cool in the pan for about 20-25 minutes.
Then I pulled it out of the tin, peeled off the paper and sliced it up.
And played around with the loaf and slices a bit!
I served it up with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of maple syrup! The beets give the cake a moist fudgy-ness and I can’t wait to have a few slices with my tea tomorrow morning…
Experiment successful. New lens inaugurated. It’s a happy happy Tuesday.
Notes:
- The sugar content in this recipe is on the lower side. Feel free to up it by adding more sugar or a little honey. Else, bake it as is and increase the sweetness while serving by using a little honey or maple syrup.
- I’ve read in a few places that by roasting/ baking the beets instead of boiling them, the flavour and sweetness can be intensified. I happened to have boiled beets in the fridge but will give it a try by roasting next time and update the results here.