This Chocolate Beetroot Cake recipe has been a winner on the website for 8 years!

Almost a decadeago, I came across a strange chocolate cake combination at an organic cafe that caught my eye. It was a Beetroot and Chocolate cake. I was intrigued and had to sink my teeth into a slice. I am so glad I did, as it was one of the most heavenly delights I had ever tried. The combination of sweet earthy beetroots with the familiar taste of chocolate was just heavenly. I returned a week later to find that it was no longer on the menu (unfortunately not enough patrons had crazy or adventurous taste buds like me). I searched online and tried several recipes to try to replicate the creation although they never quite hit the mark.

So, I came up with my very own. And here it is, for your crazy and adventurous taste buds to delight in.

 

 

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

An earthy, interesting flavour combo that is a crowd favourite
Servings 12

Ingredients
  

Cake Ingredients

  • 300 g cooked beetroot (see method), or pre-cooked whole beetroot from supermarket This recipe won't work with tinned beetroot
  • 85 g dark chocolate
  • 3 medium eggs
  • 2 cups caster sugar (or coconut, raw, brown sugar also give great flavour)
  • 1 cup olive oil or melted butter (or sunflower, or coconut oil)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup cacao or cocoa (either will do)
  • 200 g almond meal
  • tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp salt

Cake Icing

  • 1 cup cream
  • 1 cup cream cheese
  • ½ cup icing sugar (or honey
  • Plain chocolate bar for chocolate shaving decorations

Instructions
 

Cake Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius, and grease and line a 20 cm spring form cake pan
  • To cook the beetroots, wash thoroughly and place in a large pot full of cold water. No need to peel. Alternatively, you could use pre-cooked beetroots (available at supermarkets in the fruit and vegetable section) which saves the step of cooking. Do not use tinned beetroot.
  • Bring the pot to the boil and cook the beets until soft when poked with a knife (approximately 30 minutes though this depends on the size of the beets)
  • When cooked, drain the water and run the beets under cold water and gently rub off the skins.
  • In a large bowl, blend (or mash) the beetroots until slightly smooth but still some ‘chunks’ remaining.
  • Now melt the chocolate. You can use a double boiler, or place a small saucepan containing the chocolate, over the top of another saucepan full of boiling water. Over gentle heat, melt the chocolate until only-just melted.
    Alternatively, 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 oil
  • Slowly add the cooked beet puree, the melted chocolate and vanilla, into the egg mixture. Stir well to combine, but take care not to overwork the mixture.
  • Sift the cocoa and add this, the almond meal, baking powder and salt to the beet batter.
  • Fold mixture until everything is combined. Again, don’t over mix the batter, you want to keep it light and fluffy
  • Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for approximately 50 minutes. Please note: Dependent on the water content of the beetroots you have used, you may need to increase the cooking time to up to 1.5 hours. If the cake is not cooked at 50 minutes (skewer does not come out clean) return to oven and keep cooking, checking at 10 minute intervals. 
  • 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 the oven and leave to cool in the pan.

Icing Method

  • Place the cream in a bowl and whip to soft peaks form
  • 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.
  • Optional: Using a vegetable 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

A long long time ago, I came across a strange combination at an organic cafe that caught my eye. It was a Beetroot and Chocolate cake. I was intrigued and had to sink my teeth into a slice. I am so glad I did, as it was one of the most heavenly delights I had ever tried. The combination of sweet earthy beetroots with the familiar taste of chocolate was just heavenly. I returned a week later to find that it was no longer on the menu (unfortunately not enough patrons had crazy or adventurous taste buds like me). I searched online and tried several recipes to try to replicate the creation although they never quite hit the mark.

So, I came up with my very own. And here it is, for your crazy and adventurous taste buds to delight in.

 

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41 thoughts on “Chocolate Beetroot Cake

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    • thenutritionguruandthechef says:

      Hi Alona, thanks for your feedback! You could try using half a cup less oil, but I would think it maybe needed an extra 5 or 10 minutes cooking in the oven? Maybe give the longer cooking time a go. Everyone’s oven is different and maybe my oven was a little hotter. Let me know how you go next time! Thanks for giving the recipe a try, have you tried any others?

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  6. Thomas says:

    excellent recipe but my cake didn’t rise much. I was maybe thinking about adding a little more baking powder, and maybe some more plain flour for added structure. What do you think? Amazing flavor by the way!!!

    • thenutritionguruandthechef says:

      Hi Thomas! Thanks for trying the recipe! Sorry to hear that it didn’t rise much, that is ashame. Did it rise less than the one in our picture. Your right, try adding another 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder. Also make sure that the oven is at the correct temperature before putting it in, as it is that initial heat that will help it to rise.

      We haven’t had a problem with it rising, so could you let us know how you go if you make it again as we are very interested to know what you come up with! You’ll be able to share your wisdom with us!

      Happy cooking!

  7. caroline says:

    do you think it would work with raw grated beetroot instead of cooked beetroot? (carrot cake recipes use raw grated carrot)

  8. Jaclyn says:

    hi… have tried this once (used butter instead of olive oil) and it turned out AMAZING!!! i want to try again but i’m wondering if buckwheat flour would work instead of the almond meal/ flour… thanks! :>

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  10. mybeautfulthings says:

    Forgot I’d been here before! Your recipe must have stayed in my mind then when I wanted to make it I found another recipe. Not making the same mistake again! copying now and saving!
    Love the idea too of keeping the red water for rice etc!

    All the best 🙂

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  14. AMW says:

    Gosh I love this cake – I made a few changes:

    Used tinned beetroot
    Reduced the oil and top it up with milk instead
    Used 50g of sr flour with 150g of ground almonds
    If I don’t have chocolate I use extra good quality cocoa
    Reduced sugar to 200-250g instead
    I had small eggs 50g do I used 4 instead.

    Worked beautifully!

  15. Missie says:

    I can’t wait to try this! I do have one question. I have insulin resistance and wanted to know if I could replace the sugar with honey and if so how much should I use?
    Thank you

  16. Wendy2 says:

    Made it with a mixture of sugars as I was running out and about 3/4 of the oil you suggested, Also my own ground toasted almonds. beautiful and delicious. Thank you.

    • thenutritionguruandthechef says:

      Wow, Wendy thanks for letting us know! Love how you use your own almonds!. Let us know if you try any other recipes on our blog, we always love to hear from readers. The sweet potato chocolate cake is very popular too.

  17. Cassie says:

    Made this cake about an hour ago. Got to say I’m pretty heartbroken. The outside of the cake was cooked and crunchy and the second I touched it or let the collar off the mould the entire thing was a sloppy oily mess. Pretty gutted

      • Cassie says:

        After the 50 mins it was still a little undercooked so we put it back in for another 10 and it came out clean. As it sat to cool I guess the oil all settled to the bottom and it just fell apart. Would like to give it another go but will use much less oil

  18. oceanbliss75 says:

    I have had nothing but sucess with this divine recipe, my 10 year old daughter also joins in with the cooking fun. I’ve passed it on to my mum who has also loves it and it has become her new favourite cake to make for visitors.

  19. Karina Debra Hamilton says:

    I’ve been meaning to try this recipe out for months and finally got around to it today…I’m so glad I did! I made a few minor deviations from the recipe (I used raw grated beetroot, 2 extra-large eggs and only 150 mL olive oil), but the mixture made 12 absolutely delicious muffins. Thank you – I’ll definitely be baking this one again!

  20. aggibird says:

    Found that cake in a cafe in Manly and thought I’ll look for the recipe and try and bake it myself. Gonna try the beetroot and choc cake right the way! Thanks for sharing the recipe! 🙂

  21. Lhavanya DL says:

    So I tried this recipie a week ago. I changed the measurements cause my beetroot turned out smaller than expected. So i only had about 200g of that. I put in about 120 ml of oil after reading some of the comments above. I decreased sugar to about 250g and the cake turned out abit sweet so i could have gone less. The almond i roasted and put it in a blender to get it fine. But it turned out abit pasty and stuck together so when after the cake was baked there were lumps of almond paste in various parts of the cake. Could be nice if you like that sort of thing. The cake turned out not bad. Was rather sticky and refused to part from the baking sheet. And after going into the fridge it was all hard to cut through but still retained its moistness. It tasted alot like browniesO.O The same consistency and texture. Maybe cos I used rice flour. Haha all in all I will be trying this recipie again. Not sure when but it was certainly interesting and tasty enough. I think I will still continue to use less beetroot than called for though. Not sure if i can take the strong taste of it.

  22. doctorwhofan says:

    I made this today and it was a bit of a disaster. I used 3/4 of the oil rather than all of if because of the other comments. When I took it out of the oven (skewer was clean) it was really lovely and crunchy on the outsides. Inside the cake was another story, it was really thick and stodgy like it was very undercooked, put it back in the oven in the hopes that it just needed more time but it didn’t work 🙁

    • thenuvq says:

      Sorry to hear it didn’t work for you. Have never had an issue with the recipe and loads of people make it each week without a problem. Because there is no flour, the cake is much denser and is supposed to be very moist, unlike a normal cake, do you think it may be that?

  23. Peter says:

    Hi, The cake is currently in the oven so hope it turns out OK, maybe I should have read the comments first !. However, in the ingredients you say Baking Powder but in the method you say to add the Baking Soda. Wondering which one is the right one? Thanks

    • The Nutrition Guru and The Chef says:

      Hi Peter,

      It’s baking powder that you need to use, thanks for picking it up. Don’t be concerned about the comments, we have hada dozens of emails from readers who have made this cake perfectly first time. Just follow the instructions and you will be fine. It’s a dense moist cake, where we think people aren’t necessarily used to this texture and this may be where some readers may believe the cake is too wet, but this is because it does not contain white flour or butter. Please let us know what you think!

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