The chocolate-beetroot cake emerged in British food culture in the late 1990s and early 2000s, coinciding with a broader reassessment of beetroot as a sophisticated ingredient rather than a vinegary condiment. The logic of the pairing is technical as much as flavour-driven: raw grated beetroot, with its high water content and earthy sweetness, replaces some of the fat in a chocolate sponge recipe, producing a cake of extraordinary moistness that stays fresh far longer than a conventional chocolate cake. The cocoa, in its bitterness and intensity, entirely masks the flavour of the beetroot (blind tasters almost never identify it) while the colour, far from betraying the vegetable, simply deepens the brownish-red of the crumb to a particularly handsome shade. The cake became a fixture of British bakeries and food magazines through the 2000s, often presented as virtuous (the beetroot makes it a vegetable cake!) while tasting entirely of chocolate. It is finished here with a bittersweet chocolate ganache: simple, glossy, and correct.
Ingredients
Cake
250 g raw beetroot, peeled and coarsely grated (about 2 medium)
200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
150 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
150 g light muscovado sugar
100 g caster sugar
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g plain flour
50 g good-quality cocoa powder, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp fine salt
150 ml soured cream or full-fat yoghurt
Ganache
150 g dark chocolate (70%), finely chopped, for ganache
150 ml double cream, for ganache
20 g unsalted butter, for ganache
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease and line a deep 23cm round tin with baking parchment.
Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (do not let the bowl touch the water), stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Whisk the muscovado sugar, caster sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract into the chocolate mixture until the batter is smooth and glossy.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Fold into the chocolate mixture in two additions, alternating with the soured cream.
Squeeze the grated beetroot firmly in a clean tea towel or your fists to remove excess moisture. Fold the squeezed beet into the batter until evenly distributed.
Pour the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top. Bake for 35–40 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with just a few moist crumbs (not wet batter). Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the ganache: bring the cream just to a simmer in a small saucepan. Pour over the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Leave for 2 minutes, then stir from the centre outwards until smooth. Add the butter and stir in. Leave to cool for 15–20 minutes until thick and pourable.
Pour the ganache over the cooled cake and spread to the edges, letting some run down the sides. Leave to set for 30 minutes before slicing.
Notes
This cake keeps exceptionally well: the beetroot moisture means it remains tender for 3–4 days in an airtight tin. It also freezes well uniced. The beetroot flavour is completely undetectable in the finished cake.
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