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Chocolate, Chilli & Beetroot Cake |
Spice up dessert with this delicious cake, created by primary school students Tyson & Chad. If you haven't tried beetroot in a cake before, don't worry - you can't taste it! The addition of beetroot makes a lovely moist cake (with some added veggies to combat the chocolate...) and the chilli provides a unique flavour kick. If you're not ready for the chilli hit, try starting with just half the amount of chilli required. Or omit the chilli and you've still got a great chocolate and beetroot cake.
Ingredients
100g cocoa
230g self raising flour
200g castor sugar
100g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
125g butter, chopped
1 large beetroot, pre-cooked and grated*
3 eggs
3/4 tsp crushed chilli**
Ganache
375g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tbsp butter
300ml cream
Instructions
1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees & grease a 22 - 25cm cake tin
2. Sift the flour, cocoa and sugar together into a bowl
3. In a separate bowl add the beetroot, eggs and chilli, and mix well
4. Melt the chocolate and butter together over low heat
5. Add the beetroot mix to the dry ingredients and mix to combine
6. Add the chocolate mix and mix well TIP: don't let the chocolate mix cool too much - the cake mixture is thick so warm chocolate is easier to work with
7. Pour into the cake tin and bake for apx 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean
8. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before decorating
9. Serve with cream or ice cream and enjoy :)
* Look for a beetroot that's no more than 5cm in diameter (large beetroots can be fibrous), with smooth, unwrinkled skin. If you don't want to cook the beetroot, just peel it and finely grate - it will add a very little bit of texture, but there is no noticeable change to the taste. To cook the beetroot, gently wash it (don't rub too hard as you may tear the skin and loose a lot of colour when cooking it. Place it in a saucepan of cold water, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 - 45 minutes, until a skewer can be inserted easily. Then peel and grate. If you want no texture, use a Microplane or blender to produce a puree.
**Crushed chilli is available in a jar at your local supermarket. You can use the same amount of chilli powder for the same result.
Ganache
1. Bring the cream to just before boiling - you should just see bubbling around the edges (make sure it doesn't actually boil or burn!)
2. Pour the heated cream over the chocolate and butter, whisk slowly to combine
3. Leave to cool to room temperature, stirry occasionally - the ganache should be glossy and thick, but spreadable, then simply spread on like normal icing
4. Or while the ganache is still warm and a bit running, pour over the slices of cake while plated
TIP: For our heart shaped version the ganache was spread on and Wilton Red Cake Sparkles were sprinkled on through a stencil. The stencil does stick to the icing though, so we simply used a fork to create swirls on top around the red heart. |
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