Beetroot, Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake

Feel the love this Valentine’s… a ‘healthy’ cake?

This healthy(ish) cake is rich, delicious and moreish. A real treat to share with a loved one. You could even make cup cakes and have them just for you and your girlfriends.

As ever though, any cake is still a treat… so enjoy – guilt-free – but only one slice. Ok maybe two small ones. Then stop and share!

It’s full of nourishing goodness – beetroot for vitamins, antioxidants, fibre to feed your gut bugs and earthy sweetness, nuts for protein and flavour, coconut is less refined than standard caster sugar, so has a lower glycemic index. This means that your blood sugar level won’t spike and then crash quite so quickly…

Personally I add less sugar, but that’s because I don’t have a sweet tooth at all… Yes your taste buds really can, and do, change.

Ingredients

• 250g raw beetroot, grated finely (use a magimix attachment or fine grater)
• 150g ground hazelnuts – or almonds
• 200g dark chocolate (at least 70%), broken into pieces
• 1/4 cup raw cacao or quality organic cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 eggs, separated
• 50g butter or coconut oil
• 100g coconut sugar (or less – try and use a little less the 2nd time you bake it!)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Line a 20cm cake tin with baking paper or grease and “flour” the tin with more ground nuts to prevent it sticking.
3. Melt chocolate pieces and butter in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan with simmering water (bain marie).
4. When the chocolate has melted, set aside the bowl and let cool while you carry on with the rest of the instructions
5. Combine the beetroot and egg yolks, then the melted chocolate. Once combined, stir in the ground nuts, cocoa, baking powder and sugar.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
7. Add around one-quarter of the egg whites to the cake batter and stir until the mixture is combined. Gently fold through the remaining egg whites until you get a uniform consistency.
8. Empty the batter into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 45 – 55 minutes. The cake will be ready when it doesn’t stick to a knife/skewer.
9. Transfer from the oven to a baking rack and allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin.
10. When cool, dust the cake with a little cocoa or cacao powder.

Recipe adapted from Sarah Coleman.