Ingredients:
The cakes
- 250g good-quality dark chocolate
- 3 medium free-range eggs
- 250g light muscovado sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, cut in half lengthways and seeds scraped out
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons clear honey
- 40g self-raising flour
- 40g plain flour
- 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 25g cocoa powder
- 50g ground almonds
- 250g raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated
- 100ml strong black coffee
- 30ml sunflower oil
Nutritional Information
Per serving:305 calories
The topping
- 150g good-quality dark chocolate
- 3 tablespoons strong black coffee
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 3 tablespoons clear honey
Method:
1. Preheat a conventional oven to 160ºC, or a fan-assisted one to 140ºC. With the help of a brush and a tiny bit of sunflower oil, grease the surface of a round 20cm diameter by 8cm high loose-bottomed tin and set aside.
2. Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until all dissolved, then set aside to cool.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, the scraped-out vanilla seeds, the maple syrup and the honey for three minutes with an electric hand whisk until pale and quite fluffy.
4. Gently fold in the flours, bicarbonate of soda, salt, cocoa and ground almonds until fully incorporated.
5. Using some kitchen paper, dab the grated beetroot thoroughly to remove some of the excess moisture. Fold in the beetroot, cooled chocolate, coffee and oil with the help of a spatula until thoroughly mixed together.
I bought precooked beetroot, not realising till I got home that the recipe said raw. It seemed to work fine though. Precooked beetroot clearly can't be grated but one of the great things about my Kenwood food processor is the mini bowl which you can attach inside the larger one for smaller jobs throughout the recipe. So I chopped the beetroot into a grated-like consistency through using the blade attachment on the small bowl.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and cook in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. After this time, cover the cake with foil and bake for another 30 minutes.
I used my smallest ladle to ladle the mixture into muffin cases. I then baked for an hour, tested and then baked for a little longer on a lower heat. You need to monitor the cooking as it really does vary from oven to oven and will take less time in individual cases too.
7. Test the cake by inserting a skewer (or knife) into the centre to see if it comes out clean (although this cake is so moist that even when the cake is fully cooked, the skewer comes out looking slightly messy). Leave to cool on a wire rack.
8. To make the fudge topping, melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, then remove from the heat and add the coffee and the vanilla essence.
9. At this stage the chocolate will seize up slightly, but it will relax back once you add the honey and gently mix in.
10. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before icing the cake. Cut the cake through the middle and ice it in the centre and on all sides.
11. Decorate the top with whatever you fancy, but I like using pink flowers, such as tulips or roses, which I plant into the cake with a bit of stem left on.
Tips
1. Leave yourself plenty of time to make this cake because it is quite a lengthy recipe.2. The cake is best eaten when it is still slightly warm. It is also really important to ice it at the last minute or the icing can lose its shine.
However, it would freeze beautifully providing you put it away before icing. Simply defrost when needed and ice at the last minute.
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