This is one of those hidden veggies, low refined sugar, sweet treats that we love here at Westside Wellness! It's been made for many a tea or birthday party, the ganache can be swapped for icing and it can even be poured into muffin tins for easier portioning.
The recipe is egg, dairy and gluten free so useful for families with intolerances and great for parties where different diets need to be catered to, but you can swap all of those for regular flour and dairy milk if preferred.
Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
2 medium beetroots, peeled and chopped into 2 cm cubes
½ cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
2 cups of flour: 1 ½ cups brown rice flour, ¼ cup corn flour, ¼ cup besan (chickpea) flour *
¼ cup cacao
1 tsp bicarb (baking soda)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup of plant-based milk **
2 tbs vinegar
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
- Add vinegar to milk and set aside.
- Place the chopped up beetroot into a small pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover with a lid and simmer for 20-30 minutes. You will need to keep an eye on this, stirring occasionally and adding a bit more water if it starts to dry out. Stab beetroot with a fork or skewer, you want it fairly soft, a bit firm is ok though.
- Once beetroot is cooked, puree it until smoothish (it will have a bit of texture to it).
- Cream together the pureed beetroot, coconut sugar, coconut oil and vanilla essence.
- Add the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt and process until smooth.
- Add the milk and vinegar mix, again processing till smooth (this is quite a runny mixture, do not add more flour).
- Pour mixture into a greased cake tin, bang on bench to release any air bubbles.
- Bake at 180 degrees for 20-30 minutes. The cooking time will depend on your oven; gluten free cakes tend to cook quicker and will dry out if over cooked. Check with a skewer, if it comes out clean, or with dry crumbs on it, the cake is ready.
- Gluten free cakes can be soft and crumbly, allow to completely cool before turning out of tin.
CARAMEL GANACHE INGREDIENTS
- 1 x 80 g block Loving Earth 'salted caramel' chocolate
- ¼ cup coconut cream (I freeze the remainder of the tin if I won’t use it in the next few days)
- pinch of sea salt
METHOD
- Using a small saucepan and bowl as a double boiler, half fill the saucepan with water and bring to the boil.
- Break up the chocolate and add to the bowl on top, when most of it has melted, add the salt and coconut cream.
- Whisk gently until you have a smooth caramel.
- Allow to cool for a minute or two, then pour over your cake. You’ll want a plate slightly bigger than the cake to catch the run off.
CHOCOLATE GANACHE INGREDIENTS
2 tbs coconut oil
1 tbs coconut paste (I use loving earth)
2 tbs rice malt syrup
1 ½- 2 tbs cacao powder (use less or more depending on how strong you’d like the chocolate flavour)
METHOD
- Melt the coconut oil and coconut paste over a gentle heat.
- Once melted, add the rest of the ingredients and whisk together until smooth
- Remove from heat and continue whisking, allowing the mix to cool slightly
- Spread over cooled cake and caramel ganache. As the mixture cools, it will firm up more. If you store the cake in the fridge, it will get a whiteish sheen, this is just the coconut oil and will go away once the cake is at room temp.
* You can use any combo of gluten free flours, this is the combination that I’ve found works best, but you could probably use just brown rice and corn flour if you don’t have besan. Regular wheat or spelt flour also work great
** Any plant based milks will work, as will regular dairy milk
