It was Leigh’s birthday yesterday, and with a birthday of course comes cake. Cake’s always a bit difficult for me: I have an allergy to nuts, and the potential for cross-contamination makes sweet treats a bit of a minefield. The obvious solution is to bake them myself and in recent years that’s exactly what I’ve done. It took me a while to get over my fear of baking: I’ve come to love cooking over the years, but my approach is rather ad hoc. The experimental attitude never seemed so appropriate for baking: get the careful mix of flour and sugar and fats wrong, and it would all be a bit of a flop.
I finally started to chill out a bit after mastering the cupcake with the help of a friend and flat mate with whom nearly three years ago I actually made two hundred cupcakes for the sake of my wedding. There was still something that niggled at me though, and that was the ingredients themselves: however good quality they may be, there’s never going to be anything very nutritious about white flour and sugar.
Particularly since the arrival of Arthur I’ve been keen to keep empty calories off the menu as much as possible. Of course there will be times when we’ll treat ourselves or resort to unhealthy snacks for the sake of convenience, but if I’m taking the time to bake at home I’d rather try to create something a bit more worthwhile. And with a bit of online investigation, I soon discovered that there are rather more options for the simple act of baking a cake than I ever imagined.
The cake I made for Leigh’s birthday is one I’ve made a couple of times before, and every time I do I think it gets a little bit tastier. It’s nut free, gluten free, refined sugar free, instead being full of all sorts of natural nutrients – and despite all that it’s really quite delicious.
Beetroot and Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Avocado Buttercream
Ingredients
Cake
450g cooked beetroots
4 eggs
125ml melted coconut oil
125ml maple syrup
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp mixed spice
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
60g coconut flour
Icing
1 ripe avocado
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
125ml maple syrup
Method
My favourite tool for speed baking with a toddler in tow is my hand-held blender: all my mixing was therefore done with this, though if you have more subtle methods I’m sure the result will be even better.
1) Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius
2) In a large bowl, mix the beetroot, eggs and coconut oil
3) Add the maple syrup, vanilla, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices and mix well
4) Add the cocoa powder and coconut flour and mix until smooth
5) Pour the batter into a greased cake tin – I used an 8 inch tin
6) Cook for about 45 minutes – longer if necessary – until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean
7) Allow to cool
8) Meanwhile, mix the ingredients for the icing until smooth
9) Spread the icing on the cake and decorate as desired (I used blueberries)
This cake was very well received at the end of Leigh’s birthday dinner last night, and tasted even better chilled with coffee for breakfast this morning. There was an undeniable wholesomeness to its flavour, but this was offset by the fact that it left us feeling well nourished and satisfied. As rich chocolatey pleasures go there was certainly a lot less guilt involved than you might expect!
Thank you to Sara at ‘Mum turned Mom’ for inspiring this post with her prompt ‘guilty pleasures’.
Sophie is... 
Well I have to say I would never have thought of making a cake with beetroot, or icing with avocado… My husband loves beetroot, so this may be one to try for him 🙂 I love baking, but I do tend to go for the more guilty options! Thanks so much for linking to #ThePrompt x
You can’t even really taste the beetroot – just a really subtle hint. I haven’t abandoned ‘guilty’ baking completely, but with the amount of cake we’ve eaten this weekend it’s good to know it had some goodness in it! x
How do you cook the beetroot? Boil? Roast? Grate and microwave?
Any of the above I reckon! I cheated this time and used pre-cooked packaged beetroot which was super easy…
What a stunning cake and so healthy too! You sound like a girl after my own heart Sophie 🙂
#ThePrompt
This looks and sounds fab Sophie! I love to use beetroot in cakes. Never used avocado for the icing before, but have made fudge with it, so can imagine it works well. You sound like a girl after my own heart #ThePrompt
Avocado fudge sounds delicious! It makes the icing super smooth and silky – a bit of a revelation…
Wow that is ever so creative to use beetroot and avocado. Very healthy option too I love it. Sounds different but I like different. #tastytuesdays
It’s amazing the ideas there are online for alternative baking ingredients! Different but still tasty 🙂
Beetroot and avocado in cake! Now that’s definitely healthy. If I find a way to substitute the eggs for my allergy baby, I might have a go, just because I am curious! Mel #TastyTuesdays
Healthy and delicious 🙂 Never tried a substitute for eggs – but I’m sure there must be lots of ideas out there… Allergies are so annoying, but mine has definitely made me a more creative cook!
Same here!
Oh wow, love how healthy this is and you’ve combined three of my favourite foods-beetroot, avo and chocolate in one dish-will definitely be trying this (all for healthy alternatives and keeping sugar down for me and the kids). Thanks for linking up this stunning post to #tastytuesdays
It definitely takes the guilt out of a second slice of cake when you know just how many nutrients are in it! I’m always on the lookout for healthy alternatives 🙂
Never ever heard of beetroot in a cake ever. I’ve very intrigued to try this now. #tastytuesdays
It was Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s beetroot brownies that first got me onto the idea – it really does combine brilliantly with chocolate.