I was gifted a copy of The National Trust Cookbook for Christmas, and among the dozen or so pages I sticky noted was a recipe for a spiced beetroot cake. I don’t think I’ve ever attempted to make a beetroot dessert before, but I’ve certainly had delicious beetroot brownies (another recipe to try!).
One of my favourite cakes is carrot cake and this beetroot variation tastes exactly like a nicely spiced, moist carrot cake, but with an earthy flavour. Definitely, it’s a cake to make again! It was fairly simple to make and I put a slight pink twist on it for Valentine’s Day. <3
Spiced Beetroot Cake
Ingredients:
250g pack of chilled cooked beetroot in juices, drained well and finely grated
100g carrot, finely grated (approx. 1 medium)
40g walnut pieces, chopped
175 ml vegetable oil
4 large eggs
250g caster sugar
250g flour (It called for self-raising but I accidentally put in regular. Honestly it still tasted great and had a good texture without the raising agent. You could also use gluten-free flour)
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp. grated nutmeg
3/4 tsp. ground ginger
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease two 8 inch sandwich tins and line the bases with parchment paper.
Add the beetroot to a sieve and press out excess liquid with the back of a fork. I used rubber gloves to grate and strain the beet and covered my cutting board with parchment paper to prevent staining.
Mix the beet with the carrot and walnuts.
Add the oil, eggs, and caster sugar to a bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
Mix the remaining dry ingredients in a third bowl. Gently fold the beetroot mix into the whisked eggs, then fold in the dry ingredients. Spoon the cake mixture evenly into the tins, being careful not to knock out the air.
Bake for 20-25 (mine took 25) minutes until the cakes are well risen, golden brown and the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Mine would have risen more if I hadn’t accidentally used the wrong flour 🙁
Leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack. Peel off the parchment paper and leave to cool.
Frosting:
Ingredients:
175g cream cheese (basically a whole pack)
Note: I would bring to room temperature because my cheese remained lumpy during mixing.
40g. butter, room temperature
130g icing sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
food colouring (optional)
walnut pieces and sprinkles (optional)
Instructions:
Whisk the cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Add the icing sugar and vanilla and whisk until a thick consistency. I added a toothpick scoop of pink colouring gel to my frosting. Ice and decorate as desired.
*Note the original recipe has a thin glaze made with boiled sugar and cooled, but I went for a thicker icing with powdered sugar.
Pretty and tasty looking!
Yum 😋