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Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling … Daring Bakers & Hidden Veggies!

2013/03/27 / 19 Comments

“The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip…” Tom Robbins

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling

A Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling seemed the best way to hide my gardens bumper crop of this earthy red vegetable. Veggies in my cakes are not new. I’ve made a Chocolate Beetroot Cake in the past, as also Tartines Zucchini & Orange Marmalade Tea Cake, and a Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake. However, the kids have grown up and are pretty much smarter now. They instantly pick the veggies out. More often than never, the poor beet gets the boot.

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling

Ruth from Makey-Cakey was our March 2013 Daring Bakers’ challenge host. She encouraged us all to get experimental in the kitchen and sneak some hidden veggies into our baking, with surprising and delicious results!!

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling Beets in soup didn’t work; the son hated the red even as my heart sang at the colour. Beets in veggie juice was given a thumbs down … “Do you have to Mama?“. Even the roasted beet salad that I love, didn’t work. Beet greens though went down happily in these Lamb & Beet Green Calzones.

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling Getting the veggies down isn’t as much a battle any more actually. The daughter LOVES char-grilled broccoli. Pizzas are made with a mushroom sauce, topped with an abundance of balsamic roasted thinly sliced veggies – bell peppers, onions, zucchini  eggplant. Chicken and mozzarella play saviour! No one ever figures out what lies beneath!

Carrot Walnut Cake with Mascarpone Frosting Funnily enough, I made an absolutely delicious carrot cake in the first week of March. I hadn’t seen the challenge then. The veggies in that case were also home grown and not hidden in the cake. That was the best carrot cake we’ve ever eaten!

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling 6 Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling Obviously I was in sixes and sevens as I bravely made a beetroot cake. The Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake wasn’t easy to ‘declare‘ and in many ways the fear was within me. I kept thinking of ways to make something good better!

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling The cake baked nicely in just under an hour. I contemplated filling and frosting, tossing peanut butter and chocolate in my head. Peanut butter frosting was new to me, but one suggested in the recipe. Chocolate ganache was safe, simple and always welcome.

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling I settled for both. Peanut butter frosting to sandwich the cake, and dark chocolate ganache for the top. It felt safe. I left a single slice for the lad, muttering that I made something in a hurry and he could have it if he wished. Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling Came back to find both the slices on my cake platter which I had just set up for photographs gone! Crumbs!! He announced, “It was really good Mama. Was that peanut butter inside? Really nice cake!“

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling Day 2: “Is there any cake left Mama. Oh yum! It’s really nice you know. I never thought a peanut butter frosting would taste so nice”! Of course I contemplated {read forever} if I should let the beet cat out of the bag. Nah!! Decided against it. What they don’t know can’t hurt them, but the cake is going to be on the table often!

Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling

Do stop by here and check out some novel ways of hiding veggies in your baking the Daring Baker way! Thank you Ruth for the really novel challenge. Thank you as always Lisa of La Mia Cucina and Ivonne of  Cream Puffs in Venice for hosting this fab kitchen!!

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Recipe: Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Peanut Butter Filling
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Summary: A Dark Chocolate Beetroot Cake that is earthy, moist, dark and delicious. The peanut butter filling compliments the cake really well, and can be doubled if you wish to frost the top of the cake with it too. We did love the extra dark chocolate ganache lavished on top though! Minimally adapted from  NZ Woman’s Weekly

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Ingredients:

  • Chocolate beetroot Cake
  • 200g vanilla sugar
  • 125g neutral oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 120g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 35g cup cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 125g peeled and grated raw beetroot
  • 75g dark chocolate chips
  • Peanut Butter Filling
  • 50g unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 100g peanut butter
  • 115g icing sugar
  • 1-2 tbsp chilled milk {if required for correct consistency}
  • Chocolate Ganache Topping
  • 100g dark chocolate chips
  • 100g low fat cream
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • Grated chocolate for garnishing

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Line the base and sides of a 7″ round baking tin.
  2. Place the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla extract in a large bowl and whisk well with a balloon whisk.
  3. Sift the dry ingredients together.
  4. Mix the grated beetroot and chocolate chips.
  5. Alternatively add the flour mix and grated beetroot in 3 lots.
  6. Mix together lightly and place in the tin. Bake for an hour/ until a tester comes out clean.
  7. Cool completely, then slice horizontally.
  8. Peanut Butter Filling
  9. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and whip until smooth. Add a tbsp or two of chilled milk to correct the consistency if required.
  10. Also, taste and adjust sweetness if required.
  11. Sandwich the cake with the filling.
  12. Chocolate Ganache Topping
  13. Place the dark chocolate chips, cream and honey in a heat proof bowl. Microwave 1 minute at a time until the chocolate has melted, stirring well each time. Whisk until glossy and cool a little. Pour over the cake.
  14. Pipe rosettes of any left over peanut butter frosting on the ganache once slightly set, grate chocolate over the top if you wish. Enjoy!

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About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

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