Beetroot Brownies - Low-Fat Chocolate Brownie Recipe

My grandparents are supposed to be on low-sugar diets but I wanted to bake my granddad something for his birthday recently. It had to be something I could make fairly quickly and transport easily so I decided to make him a nicely-packaged box of chocolate brownies. I had a look on the internet and found a recipe for low-sugar chocolate brownies on the Diabetes UK website, which use beetroot to make them moist. They tasted really good- chocolately enough that while you can detect a hint of beetroot I didn't really notice there was anything different (though my boyfriend did, but he doesn't eat beetroot and can smell something he doesn't like a mile off!).

You can find the full recipe here. The only change I made was to use agave nectar instead of maple syrup.

Putting the beetroot, coffee, eggs, vanilla and agave nectar into the blender:

The mixture is a lovely browny-red colour

Ready to go in the oven

And baked!

Sliced into squares. The brownies were moist and slightly fudgy and tasted really good.

I'm sending these to the new egg link-up hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen, called Simply Eggcellent.

This is a good way to get an extra portion of veg which is hidden from picky eaters, so I'm entering this in Extra Veg, hosted by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary on behalf of Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

These are so easy that children could make them (just watch the beetroot juice doesn't get all over their hands as it really stains!- adults should probably add the beetroot to the blender then let the kids take over) so I am sending this to Family Foodies, hosted by Louisa at Eat Your Veg and Vanesther at Bangers and Mash.

Valentine's Chocolate and Beetroot Cake Heart Shaped Bundt

Nordicware's heart-shaped bundt tin is the perfect choice for your Valentine's baking! I got it as a Christmas present and knew I had to use it to make a cake for Valentine's day, and that cake had to be chocolate. Then, I saw that two of my favourite blog challenges - Random Recipes and We Should Cocoa - had joined forces this month. Dom at Belleau Kitchen, who hosts RR, and Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog, the creator of WSC, decided that we should choose one of our recipe books at random, turn to the chocolate section and make one of those recipes. The book I chose at random was the Clandestine Cake Club cookery book, and the recipe I chose was for a chocolate and beetroot cake. I adapted it a little; I used ready cooked beetroot which came vacuum packed, as it was quicker to cook than raw beetroot. I also used slightly less beetroot than the recipe called for, since I only bought one pack and wanted to use a little of it for another recipe, and I missed out the coffee as I didn't think the cake needed the additional flavour and I don't really like coffee. Also, I left out the red food colouring that is used in the cake, as I wanted the cake to be chocolate coloured but with red or pink icing, and I didn't make the candied beetroot to go on top, as I had some cute chocolate hearts from Dr. Oetker that I wanted to try out.

This is the heart-shaped bundt tin; you can make this cake in any shape bakeware of course

 You need:
250g plain chocolate
3 eggs
250g light brown sugar
4 tbsp runny honey
1 tsp vanilla flavouring
80g plain flour
50g ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
25g cocoa powder
175g ready-to-eat beetroot, grated
50ml sunflower oil
Icing sugar and pink or red food colouring for decorating

Preheat the oven to 180C. Melt the chocolate in a bain marie or the microwave.

Beat the eggs, sugar, honey and vanilla until light and fluffy.

Fold in the flour, ground almonds, baking powder and cocoa.

Fold in the melted chocolate and grated beetroot and then the sunflower oil.

Grease and line your cake tin; I sprayed the tin with PME Cake Release.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour. How long it takes to bake will depend on the size of your tin; the bundt tin is not that wide but is fairly deep so it takes longer for the cake to cook, and as you can see it's very easy for it to start to burn on top! If this happens you can cover the tin with foil for the last part of the cooking time. 

Allow the cake to cool in the tin then turn out onto a wire rack. The chocolate, cocoa and beetroot combine to make a very dark, fudgy cake - I promise this isn't burnt!

I decided to make pink icing to drizzle over the top so I mixed icing sugar with water and a little Sugarflair pink gel colour. I put some kitchen paper under the cake as I knew it would be messy!

I was sent these chocolate hearts by Dr. Oetker which are really cute - and taste great too! Just because they are small decorations doesn't mean they shouldn't be good quality chocolate.

I placed a heart on each groove in the cake.

I also bought a heart-shaped cake board from a new cake shop near where I live, which I thought would be perfect for this cake.

 And here it is!

Side view with a better view of the chocolate hearts. Of course, you can decorate this cake however you like.

Unsurprisingly, there are several Valentine's-themed blog challenges this month that this recipe is perfect for. Firstly, Calendar Cakes, hosted by Rachel at Dollybakes and Laura at Laura Loves Cakes, as their theme is l'amour. (That's love, for non-French speakers!)

Beetroot is in season in February so I am sending this to Ren Behan's challenge Simple and In Season.

As already mentioned, I chose this recipe to fit in with a double blog challenge, We Should Cocoa hosted by Chocolate Log Blog and Random Recipes at Belleau Kitchen.

The theme for this month's Tea Time Treats is chocolate; the challenge is hosted by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Janie at The Hedgecombers.

I'm also sharing this with Four Seasons Food, hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Eat Your Veg. The theme this month is "food from the heart".

 Michelle at Utterly Scrummy and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours have a great blog challenge called Extra Veg where the idea is to blog about any recipe where you have an extra portion of veg - in this case, beetroot in the cake!

Finally a new challenge, Love Cake, hosted by Jibber Jabber. Rose-shaped cakes are certainly evocative of love and passion - the theme this month is baking with passion.

Chocolate Beetroot Fudge Cake - a healthy chocolate cake?

Many of the other baking blogs I read – and people I follow on Twitter- run baking challenges on their websites. The idea is, they set a challenge every month and you bake something that fits the theme, or uses the ingredient they specify, and send them your recipe and a photo.

I think it’s a great idea, as you get to feel part of a baking community, there’s a little bit of a competitive element, and you try making things you may not otherwise have done – and get some really good ideas from other people!

BakingAddict and I have decided to start our own baking challenge so watch this space for some more information before the end of the month! I have never actually entered a baking challenge on anyone else’s site before so I thought it was about time I did.

One that I really like is We Should Cocoa – the idea is that you make something with chocolate and whichever ingredient they choose each month. January’s challenge was hosted by Chele of Chocolate Teapot and the challenge was to make something health conscious, but still involving chocolate.

This suited me perfectly as there is a recipe I had been wanting to try for a while as I was really curious what it would taste like, but I wasn’t sure I would like it – so I didn’t want to make it when I was having people round or making someone’s birthday cake! I’m not really that brave when it comes to trying new things….

A couple of years ago there was a programme on Channel 4 called “Cook Yourself Thin”, which had four female cooks giving recipes a healthy twist. I got the accompanying recipe book – I think I actually won it in a competition – and was always intrigued by Harry Eastwood’s Chocolate and beetroot fudge cake.

I also came across this Simple and In Season blog event on Fabulicious Food, which is general cooking rather than baking, with the aim of using a seasonal ingredient every month. According to Google, beetroot is actually in season in January – so what better excuse to try out this cake and enter it in not one but two blogging challenges at the same time?

So without further ado, here is the recipe that I adapted slightly, as I realised half way though the recipe that I didn’t have any ground almonds, and I always use vanilla flavouring rather than the much more expensive vanilla essence that is recommended.

Chocolate Beetroot Fudge Cake - Adapted from Cook Yourself Thin

·        250g dark chocolate

·        3 eggs

·        250g light muscovado sugar

·        1 tbsp vanilla flavouring

·        2 tbsp maple syrup

·        2 tbsp clear honey

·        40g self-raising flour

·        100g plain flour

·        ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

·        ¼ tsp salt

·        25g cocoa powder

·        250g raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated

·        100ml strong black coffee

·        30ml sunflower oil

For the topping

·        150g dark chocolate

·        3 tbsp strong black coffee

·        1 tsp vanilla flavouring

·        3 tbsp clear honey

Method

1.    Preheat oven to 160ºC (fan-assisted 140ºC). Spray a loose-bottomed cake tin (I think mine is 8 inches but I’m never sure!) with sunflower oil or grease the tin.

2.    Melt chocolate in a microwave (you could also do it in a bain-marie).

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, the vanilla, 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 and cocoa.

5.    Grate the beetroot then using some kitchen paper, dab it gently to remove some of the excess moisture. Fold in the beetroot, cooled chocolate, coffee and oil  until thoroughly mixed together.

6.    Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and cook in the middle of the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. After that cover the cake with foil and bake for another 30 minutes.

7.    To make the fudge topping, melt the chocolate then add the coffee and the vanilla.

8.    Add the honey and gently mix in.

9.    Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before icing the cake. When the cake itself has cooled, cut the cake through the middle and ice it in the centre and on the top.

10.    Decorate the top with whatever you fancy. As the cake batter took on a distinctly pink hue (even though the cooked cake is chocolate coloured) and it’s nearly Valentine’s Day, I was in a romantic sort of mood, so I used little heart shaped sprinkles.

When I sliced into the cake, I found the inside was very moist, while the edges and the base were a little difficult to cut - I think my oven is a little out sometimes and it may have ended up a little overcooked. It made it quite hard to cut a neat slice!

The real test for me though was whether you can actually taste the beetroot in the cake. Did I mention I hate beetroot?! That was mainly why I hadn't tried to make this cake before! But I figured that since carrot cake doesn't really taste of carrots, this might be the same... and I think it's lovely! You can't really taste the beetroot at all - there is perhaps a hint of something in this cake, but that may be because I used dark chocolate which is more bitter, when I normally prefer to cook with milk chocolate (even if a recipe specifies plain!). The overriding taste is actually chocolate fudge - so I doubt this cake is exactly "healthy", but it's definitely a more health conscious way of making a chocolate cake, and using a vegetable that is in season! I wonder if thise counts as one of my five a day?!