It’s no secret chocolate rocks this house. My stash of chocolate bars gets depleted at an alarming rate. That said, we are very fussy about our chocolate, it has to be the deep dark variety and not cloyingly sweet. We can demolish a cake in one single day…really! And because today all of us were in a chocolate cake demolition mood, I decided to bake this Glutenfree Chocolate Beetroot Cake!
This Glutenfree Chocolate Beetroot Cake wonderfully moist and fudgy, not overly sweet, which makes it perfect for snacking as opposed to “only dessert”. We like that, don’t we?
I have made a whole-wheat version of this cake a few times before, which also came out delicious. This time I went the gluten-free way using buckwheat flour, currently my favorite and used honey and dates to sweeten it. With fingers crossed, popped it in the oven and the cake rose beautifully, got a crackly top, came out of the tin without a fuss and tasted gloriously rich and decadent. While beets add moisture and a hint of that gorgeous red color, dates make it subtly sweet and sticky…in a good way! Next time I’ll probably leave out the honey and use only dates.
I grated the beetroots thickly, so this cake does have strands of beetroot making an appearance here and there, like in a carrot cake, adding to the texture. If you don’t fancy that, you could thinly grate the beets or maybe cook them first and puree them before adding them to the batter.
This beauty got prettied up a bit with some chocolate glaze, chopped pistachios, hazelnuts, and pumpkin seeds. A dusting of cocoa powder completed the look. Though this is absolutely optional… it does make the cake look rather fetching!
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Recipe for this Glutenfree Chocolate Beetroot Cake adapted from Green Kitchen Stories
Chocolate Beetroot Cake, Gluten Free
Ingredients
- 170 gms Buckwheat Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 25 gms Cocoa Powder
- 125 ml Coconut Oil
- 50 gms Dark Chocolate i used 70%
- 100 ml Honey
- 50 gms Dates pitted and chopped
- 3 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 120 gms Beetroot grated
Chocolate Glaze
- 15 gms Cocoa Powder
- 50 ml Honey
- 10 ml Coconut Oil melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a 7″ round cake pan. Dust it with some cocoa powder. You could use plain flour as well.
- In a small bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together.
- Combine coconut oil, honey, chopped dates and dark chocolate in a large saucepan. Warm the mixture over very gentle heat and stir till the chocolate melts. Add the grated beetroot. Mix well.
- Let the mixture cool a bit and then beat in the eggs and vanilla.
- Stir in the dry ingredients. It will be a thick batter. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Turn out on a cake rack to cool. serve as is or glazed.
- For (optional) glaze - Mix all three ingredients in a small bowl till thick and glossy. Taste and adjust for sweetness. Pour over the cooled cake. Sprinkle some nuts, seeds and cocoa powder.