Vegan chocolate & beetroot cake with spiced beetroot glaze
Posted by kathryn in Desserts
Don’t let the word “vegan” in the title put you off. I’ve been making this cake for years, it’s the first recipe I ever had published and I’ve been serving it to carnivores, omnivores, vegetarians and lactose-intolerants and it’s never failed to impress. There’s something about the words “beetroot” and “chocolate” that makes people do a double-take. The cake is rich and dense, while the addition of the glorious red-coloured spiced beetroot glaze just sets it off a treat.
I promised to post this recipe ages ago, in fact I first mentioned it when I posted the beetroot curry recipe (thanks to Kylie for reminding me to post the cake). In amongst all my beetroot obsessiveness I can’t believe I forgot this recipe. The last time I cooked this cake was for a Christmas in July celebration, hence the festive decoration in the photograph!
If you’re a vegan, you love beetroot, or are just feeling a bit adventurous, why not try out this cake? I’m not claiming it’s healthy, but is very satisfying as an occasional treat!
Vegan chocolate & beetroot cake
- 500g wholemeal flour (I often use spelt)
- 180g cocoa
- 340g sugar
- 1 medium beetroot, grated
- 300ml olive oil
- 350ml water
- 1.5 tablespoons baking powder
- 250g silken tofu
Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a 22cm cake tin (it’s easier if you’ve got a loose-bottomed one).
Sift the flour and cocoa together into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and grated beetroot and mix to combine.
In a food processor blend together the oil, water, baking powder and tofu, until it has a smooth texture and is well combined. Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Then pour this into the cake tin and cook in the oven for 1.25 – 1.5 hours. Check the cake after 1 hour by insterting a skewer into it – if it comes out clean the cake is ready. The cake will come out of the oven slightly cracked on top, but smelling wonderful.
Leave to cool on a wire rack and serve with the spiced beetroot glaze.
Spiced beetroot glaze
- 1 litre water
- 1 medium beetroot, cut into 2 cm cubes
- 1 cinnamon quill
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, split in 2
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
Place all the ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and then gently simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the mixture, reserving the liquid. Add the beetroot back to the strained liquid and then blend this together. Pour the glaze back into the pan and heat for a further 2 minutes.
13 September, 2007
Comments
Wow Kathryn – this really looks amazing!!! I love beets. (and cake.)
My birthday was last week and I asked a baker friend of mine for a Red Velvet Cake (another pic here) – a specialty from the Southern US that’s flavored with cocao and dyed red. Very bizzare. I think your cake looks equally yummy and much much healthier – I’ll ask for this one next year!
ooh i definitely want to try making this one day. it seems so apt for a Christmas cake – i think it’s the dark density, and the cinnamon. yum.
i wonder how it would go with GF flour…
It’s a fine, fine cake. Vanessa, that red velvet cake looks amazing and very funny. It’s just sooooo red – as Wikipedia says, it does look like “devil’s food”. Was it good? Was the red colour off-putting?
Lindsey, it does make a good Christmas cake, especially if you’re not a fruit cake fan. As per my comment on your blog, I don’t have a lot of experience with gluten free flour – the closest I’ve got to avoiding wheat is using spelt, which is not quite the same thing.
And, Vanessa, I had some lovely big, red tomatoes in my vegie delivery this week and have been inspired by your eggs baked in tomatoes dish, so that might be lunch today.
This looks perfect! The only choc-beetroot cake I’ve tried was fabulously moist and I quite fancy the spices involved in this one. It’s also great to see a vegan recipe without any of those difficult-to-find ingredients (egg replacer, flax seeds, dairy substitutes, etc).
Will have to hurry up and make it before spring completely envelopes us. Huh, who’ve thought I’d want just one more week of winter?!
Hi Cindy, this one is quite dense and yes moist, but it’s the glaze which really turns it from being a normal cake into something special.
YUM, Kathryn! My mother has always put beetroot in her chocolate cake, it is the best! I’m going to veganise it with your recipe and see how it turns out. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve seen beetroot & chocolate cake recipes, but never one also using tofu. Most interesting – and thank you for sharing!!
can I make this cake without the silken tofu as I don’t eat tofu?
Patsy: the silken tofu is in there as a vegan egg replacement. So that’s the most obvious substitution. If taste is the issue with tofu – then I should also comment that you don’t taste the tofu. It acts as a binding agent, holding the batter together when cooked and providing some structure. And the chocolate flavour takes over!
Let me know if you do try making the cake.
I made it without it and it came out perfect, beautiful, I am going to make another one for my Husbands birtday party tommorow and my sons christening which is on the same day. The only thing is I tried to take it out before it was cool and it broke in half, but once it was cooled it binded together, moist and soft, kids love it! Thanks so much.
I also used white spelt!
hey
I baked the cake for a bit over 2 hours, and then microwaved it for 3 minutes, however, it turned out really moist?? I kept using several bamboo sticks to test whether the cake was ready, and it didn’t come out entirely clean?? I don’t know wat I did wrong!!
Patsy: thanks so much for reporting back on your cake making. Glad to hear the eggs worked and that the kids loved it.
Smoothygroovy: wow, more than two hours in the oven and it still didn’t cook? That’s quite bizarre. It’s a dense, moist cake, so it does require a longer time in the oven at a lower temperature – to cook right through without burning on the outside.
My initial thought is to check the temperature of your oven. There is quite a bit of variation between different oven temperatures and cooking rates. I have a fan-forced oven and have been noticing it does cook quite hot. If you have a cooler oven, which is not fan-forced, you may need to push the temperature up a little. To 190 – 195 degrees centigrade.
The cake should definitely be cooked well within 2 hours. And yes it’s moist and delicious, but not raw and stodgy!
It was rather delicious, however a bit more moist than I had expected? probly cause Im never made a moist cake before. I think I need to recheck the the oven temperature. I will definately try it again! Thanks so much for putting vegan baking recipes up!! thankyou~
I made this using solid tofu (silken is not so readily available round here) and wheat free flour and it was delicious. Thanks so much for posting this recipe!
Anna – thank you so much for letting me know about the tofu. I’ve never thought to make it with hard tofu – assuming that wouldn’t blend up enough. Glad to hear you had success. I haven’t made this cake for ages and you’re making me think I should!
Hi there – dying to try this cake – how many eggs should I use to substitute the 250g silken tofu?
Wow, this sounds amazing. I have a glut of beats at the moment and am going to make this tonight. Question – regarding wholemeal flour, do you think wholemeal bread flour would work? I have some “whole spelt flour”, but only 350 and thought I’d make up the other 150 with the wholemeal bread flour. Or would plain white flour be better?
Thanks!
Hi there Monica, to be honest I don’t know how bread flour would go in this cake, I’ve never tried it. Personally I’d make up your missing 150g with plain white flour, to be on the safe side – still means it’s a mostly wholemeal cake. Hope you enjoy the cake. I’m a huge fan of beets, so if you do a search on “beetroot” you’ll find a lot of other suggestions. And there’s also a beetroot curry recipe in my archives – right here.
Hi,
I made this recipe, only put the mix into muffin cases and baked lots of them. I doubled the recipe amounts and made over fifty little muffins! They turned out really well, and the texture was great – really moist. I put them in the freezer and they microwave really well to defrost. They are delicous at work for lunch or breakfast and nice hot from the microwave too! I am off to buy more ingredients for another batch today! Great recipe, thanks
Rachel
Rachel, thank you so much for letting me know about your muffin making adventures. What a good idea. I’ve only ever made this cake as a cake. I love the though of your freezer being chock-a-block with beetroot muffins.
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