Name: Chocolate and beetroot cake
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 75 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 10
Ingredients: 400 gm dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped; 6 eggs, separated; 150 gm caster sugar; 200 gm beetroot (1 large), very finely grated; 100 ml pouring cream, whisked to soft peaks; 75 gm almond meal; For greasing: butter; To serve: Dutch-process cocoa powder, double cream or ice-cream

Chocolate and beetroot cake

Australian Gourmet Traveller dessert recipe for chocolate and beetroot cake.

Serves 10

Prep

15M

Cook

1H 15M

Total

1H 30M

This cake is adapted from a recipe in Neil Perry’s The Food I Love. Beetroot contributes to a moist result and is a perfect flavour match for chocolate. You’ll be surprised at just how good this cake tastes.

Ingredients

400 gm dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids), coarsely chopped

6 eggs, separated

150 gm caster sugar

200 gm beetroot (1 large), very finely grated

100 ml pouring cream, whisked to soft peaks

75 gm almond meal

For greasing: butter

To serve: Dutch-process cocoa powder, double cream or ice-cream

Method

Main

1.Preheat oven to 175C. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water until smooth (3-5 minutes). Set aside.

2.Meanwhile, whisk yolks and two-thirds of sugar in an electric mixer until pale and creamy (3-5 minutes). Add melted chocolate and grated beetroot, stir to combine and set aside.

3.Whisk eggwhite in an electric mixer to soft peaks, add remaining sugar and whisk until smooth and glossy. Fold cream and eggwhite through chocolate mixture, then fold through almond meal, spoon into a 20cm-square watertight cake tin, buttered and lined with baking paper. Place in a roasting pan, pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up sides of tin and bake for 45 minutes, then reduce oven to 150C and bake until cake springs back when lightly pressed (30 minutes). Turn off oven, cool cake in oven for 20 minutes, then run a knife around sides and cool in pan for another 15 minutes before turning out. Dust with cocoa powder and serve with cream or ice-cream.

Styling by Lisa Featherby