Beets. A vegetable I will absolutely not tolerate! I don't like the way it stains everything, I don't like the way it smells and I definitely don't like the way it tastes. When I was a child I was subjected to watching my father, who is of Russian extraction, eat heaving bowls of borscht (beetroot soup) with great dollops of sour cream. I must have taken after the Polish side of my mother's family as I would never go near the stuff.
Recently, a friend brought me a caterer's sized box of cooked, cubed beetroot. I politely said thank you, closed the door and thought 'Grief!', what on earth am I going to do with this! Think out of the box here, Sam! I have to be able to bake this into something, 'cause I'm sure as hell not going to eat it any other way!
Well, lo and behold I remembered a recipe I once saw for chocolate beetroot cake. Chocolate can make anything better, right? I dragged it up from my memory banks and 'Taaa Daaa' the most delicious, moist chocolate cake I have had near my mouth for yonks! Try it out the next time you get a box of beets you'd rather not waste!
Chocolate Beet Cake
250g pureed beetroot
3 eggs
1/2 tspn vanilla
250ml vegetable oil
300g caster sugar
225g flour
1 1/2 tspn bicarb of soda (that's baking soda for you Yanks)
1/4 tspn salt
6 tbspn cocoa
1. Grease and flour a 9x13' tin and preheat the oven to 180c/350f /G4.
2. Combine beets, egg, vanilla, oil and sugar. Mix until well combined.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, bicarb of soda, salt and cocoa.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the beet mixture and mix well. Pour into tin.
4. Bake for 25-30 mins.
I like to sprinkle top with icing sugar.
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