Vegan beetroot chocolate cake
Vegan beetroot chocolate cake
Hope you guys are well and, if you happen to live in the Great Drizzle Kingdom, not too peeved by the fact that it’s nonstop raining and blowing a gale despite us being on the precipice of summer. I am one of these people whose mood is very much affected by the weather (what was I thinking moving back here, right?) so I am working hard to keep dark thoughts at bay right now. To distract myself I made a rich chocolate beetroot cake as it seemed like a perfect treat for the cold and gloomy weekend ahead.
I’m especially motivated to bake right now as Duncan and myself have finally managed to fix our SMEG oven that none of the oven repairmen were willing to take on. They told us to get a new one (hello? I don’t have £2000 lying around, do you?) so we decided to take the matters into our own hands, remembering full well that time when Duncan decided to fix a coffee machine and as soon as he took it apart he realised how much out of his depth he was. We were a bit apprehensive, to say the least, but given that the alterative was to buy a new one anyway, we had nothing to lose.
We were pretty sure that the issue was with one of the connector switches but as we bought the oven second hand, we had no paperwork and the previous owner must have taken the sticker with the serial number off and apparently that was the deal breaker. According to the repair guy, there are so many variants of this oven and the connector switches look impossibly similar that he was not able to tell us which one to order and unless we find the serial number, all we could do is to buy a new oven. This sounded ridiculous to us, to be honest, so we decided to skip the middle man.
Duncan spent a lot of time researching online and finally found a connector that he felt pretty confident was the correct one. Then there was the issue of opening the oven up. We faced the prospect of having to drag it out and gouging our newly restored pine floor in the process until I found a forum with exact, step by step, instructions on how to do it in a much easier way. I could not believe my luck.
The connector switch turned out to be on the nose so we were quietly celebrating but, to our surprise, swapping it out did absolutely nothing. Next, Duncan went through all of the connecting cables to establish if any of them were broken and rewired the suspect looking ones… Still nothing. He was about to give up when he realised that the oven clock needs to be set in order for the main oven to work. Once he set the clock, the oven sprung to life again and we did a little dorky happy dance! The oven now works and looks (we gave it a really good clean) way better than it ever did and we are so happy that we didn’t listen to the guy who apparently repairs ovens for a living!?
To celebrate our win, I made an indulgent double chocolate beetroot cake. It’s really easy to make, moist, intensely chocolatey and I topped it with a layer of rich chocolate ganache as I was feeling exuberant. If you want to skip the icing, you could add chopped up chocolate directly to the cake batter for extra indulgence. I love beetroots, but I want to reassure those of you who are not beetroot lovers that you cannot taste them in the finished product. They simply make this cake beautifully moist, that’s all. It’s our latest favourite cake and I hope it will become yours too.
- 60 ml / ¼ cup strong coffee*
- 60 g / heaped ¼ cup coconut oil
- 180 g / 6.35 oz raw beetroot, weight after peeling
- ¾ cup / 180 ml almond (or other) plant milk, lukewarm
- 200 g / 1 cup sugar (coconut sugar for refined sugar-free version)
- 75 g / ¾ cup cocoa powder (natural, not Dutch processed)
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 160 g / 1¼ cups white all-purpose flour or GF flour mix (I use this one)
CHOCOLATE GANACHE (optional)
- 100 g / 3½ oz dark (70%) vegan chocolate**
- 100 ml / 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp full fat coconut milk
- Heat up the oven to 180° C / 355° F (without the fan function) and grease and line a 2 lb cake tin (see NOTES) with a large strip of baking paper.
- Brew a strong coffee, measure out 60 ml / ¼ cup and pour it over the coconut oil to melt it.
- Slice beetroot thinly and place in a blender with coffee-oil mixture and lukewarm plant milk. Blend until the mixture is smooth and there are no pieces of beetroot left.
- Transfer the beetroot mixture to a large mixing bowl.
- Stir in sugar.
- Place a sieve over the bowl and sift in cocoa powder, salt, both raising agents and flour in three batches. I pre-sieved my dry ingredients for the photos.
- Fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients after each batch, by making small circles in the middle of the bowl with your spoon to minimise lumps. It will take a while to incorporate well, please be patient.
- Once the mixture is uniform, transfer it into the prepared baking tin and bake for about 55-57 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean of cake crumbs.
- Allow the cake to cool down completely after baking and before icing.
CHOCOLATE GANACHE (optional)
- Break the chocolate up into small pieces and place in a large bowl.
- Warm coconut milk in a small pot until it reaches an almost boiling point. Pour hot coconut milk over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for 5-10 minutes, DO NOT STIR straight away. Now stir the chocolate gently until it’s combined with coconut milk into a smooth and glossy chocolate ganache. Let it thicken just a little before applying to the cold cake – it will harden as it cools. Decorate with chocolate shavings before serving if you wish. HOT TIP: Cut the iced cake with a warm knife for a neater slice.
**If not using the ganache, you may want to add chopped up chocolate to the cake batter instead.
Please be aware that 1 kg / 2 lb tins vary enormously between brands so I recommend measuring the volume of the tin you intend to use first. For this recipe, I used a 2 lb cake tin that holds approximately 1250 ml / 5 cups of liquid (to the brim). The batter should fill no more than 2/3 – 3/4 of the tin or else the cake may not raise.
Cake looks delicious by the way! xx
You can simply use more plant milk in the place of coffee. I hope you and your guests will enjoy this cake. Ania
PS: I added a note to make sure people are aware that Dutch processed cocoa isn't suitable in this recipe.
Thank you, I am really happy to hear that you, your husband and guests enjoyed this cake and plan to make it again. It is definitely designed to be dense and moist, but not undercooked (see cross section photo for crumb). It maybe that your oven is a little less hot than mine so you may need to give it a few more minutes next time but I would be careful with just adding fan function at the current temperature as it increases the actual oven temperature by about 20° C and so the cake may end up too dry. Having said that, feel free to adjust to how you like it. x Ania
I don't recommend using whole wheat flour in cakes as it makes them denser and less delicate, but if you don't mind that I would use roughly the same quanity, say 150 g / 5.25 oz / 1 cup + 2 tbsp. Hope it works out well. x Ania
Is it possible to make this cake by subbing in something , maybe olive oil or apple puree, in place of the coconut oil? I'm on a low saturated fat lifestyle so vegan butter isn't an option. I've been prompted to ask by the fat options in your courgette chocolate cake.
Thanks
Sure, light olive oil or other neutral oil (like grapeseed, for example) will work just as well. You could try making it oil-free by subbing with silken tofu or vegan youghurt, but I haven't tested it here - it will certainly be less indulgent. Hope this helps! Ania
My guess is that you will need to double the recipe and divide the batter between two 20 cm / 8" round tins. My oven also has a fan function, I simply bake it at 180° C / 355° F on a setting without fan. If you cannot switch the fan function off, reduce the oven temperature by 20° C / 70° F and bake until a skewer comes out clean. My guess is 30 minutes but it's just a guess - each cake is different - I would start checking after 25 minutes. Hope this helps! x Ania
Sorry for a delayed response – was stuck in bed with Covid for the past two weeks! I *think* so, I have not tested this one with cooked beets, but it's based on these beetroot muffins which use cooked beets so it should be fine. Hope this helps! x Ania
It's difficult to be 100% sure but I would say if you make a homemade gluten-free flour blend that has a healthy dose of starches (which are necessary for binding), it should work well enough. The flour I use consists of buckwheat and rice flour, tapioca and potato and cornstarch. What I would say though is definitely steer clear of coconut flour as, unless you know what you are doing, it's so incredibly thirsty that it will make your cake dry and horrible (I have had many subpar test bakes with it). Hope his helps! x Ania
I'm sorry to hear. Not sure what you mean 'take it out' - out of the oven or out of the tin? Sounds like it is either overbaked (too long in the oven or maybe your oven runs hot) OR the ingredients have not been measured accurately - too much flour/cacao powder or too little wet ingredients. It's really hard to tell without more info. Ania
I used my own blend of GF all purpose flour.
I made it as a loaf to test whether it would keep for 3 days out the fridge-it is absolutely fine out of the fridge, in a container.
It is so moist, yet fluffy, rich, deep, fudgey and earthy!
I made half the cake recipe yesterday with half the ganache recipe in cupcake style, baked for about 18-22 mins... absolutely stunning! I highly recommend this!
Thank you so much Ania once again for a fab recipe! On point!
I did tag you in my Insta, so you could see my results but not sure if it appeared your side...
You must be proud of this one!
Thank you! X
Thank you so much, I am delighted that you enjoyed this case so much that you've already made it twice! And thank you so much for taking the time to leave this lovely review - it is extremely heart warming to know that people enjoy cooking/baking what I come up with. Unfortunately, I must have missed your Instagram post - I've been taking some time off it this past week. If you tag me again, it should show up in my feed hopefully - I will look out for it. x Ania
Im in South Africa currently - but it is winter, so hopefully that'll help... would be taking it camping, so no fridge option... But Im gonna make it in any case and try it out before the time and see how it lasts! The problem whe doing this is refraining ourselves from eating yummy tempting things!!
Will let you know how it pans out! Looks gorgeous though! X
This looks awesome! I was wondering how this would store? Would it be able to last +- 3 days outside of a refrigerator?
I flipping love your website and always look to your recipes when Im in a pickle of what to do!They pretty much are always a success!
Thank you for all your amazing creations! X
Aw, thank you for your kind words re:blog - that's so nice to hear! As for your question, I have had my photoshoot leftover cake, in a plastic box, in the fridge since Friday and Duncan had a piece of it last night and still really enjoyed it although - like any cake - it does dry out a bit as the time goes on. I have not tried storing it at room temperature, but since it has no eggs I reckon that it will be fine provided the room you are keeping it in is fairly cool. I see from your email that you may be living in the UK and since the nights are still quite cold - placing it outside at night might be a good idea. Hope this helps! Ania
I made the following modifications out of laziness and it still turned out great! I can't make a direct comparison to the original though since this was my first time making it.
+ I used canned beets and (light) olive oil.
+ Instead of sifting and mixing it in batches, I just added everything to the stand mixer and mixed it on low until it was mostly smooth.
+ I used a square cake pan (I think 8x8?) and baked it for about half the time.
+ I made the ganache, but used almond milk instead of coconut milk.
The cake looks delicious! I’m going to try making it next weekend.
I left the chocolate ganache off because I felt it would be too rich. I happened to have some cooked raspberries with a bit of sugar which went very well with it.