Beetroot chocolate cake

When my neighbor asked me if I wanted a beetroot from her vegetable garden, my first thought was „yay, natural food coloring!”. But then, as she handed me the beetroot, I realized it was way too big to use it only just to make juice and then color the frosting with it, since I wasn't planning to bake cupcakes for the entire neighborhood. So I decided to look around for a dessert recipe that uses beetroot. I found Nigella's recipe and I must say I was intrigued by this odd combination: cocoa and beetroot. Odd to say the least, but why not give it a try? If you feel adventurous enough (and I think you do, because you are reading this, and that's the first step) give it a try and I promise you won't be sorry.

Ingredients:

For the cake

175 grams plain flour

5 grams baking powder

75 grams cocoa powder

225 grams caster sugar

3 eggs

225 grams raw beetroot (roasted, peeled and chopped)

200 ml sunflower oil

pinch of salt

For the frosting

200 grams mascarpone cheese

start with 75 grams confectioner's sugar and work your way up, until you get the desired consistency and sweetness

beetroot juice for the color (optional)

Directions:

Wash the beetroot first, peel and cut into quarters. Place it in a pot and cover it with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook it until soft when poked with a fork (depending on the size, this may take up to 30 minutes). Remove from the pot and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and place rack in center of the oven. Grease a 20 centimeters (8 inch) bundt pan.

When the beetroot has cooled completely, place it in a blender and puree it. Add the eggs (one at a time) and the oil, beat well after each addition. It is possible not to puree the beetroot and only slightly mash it with a fork in order to have larger chunks of beet in the cake, if you think you would like it better that way. In that case, beat the eggs in a separate bowl before pouring them over the beet, and fold the rest of the ingredients with a silicone spatula, careful not to smash the beetroot chunks.

In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa, add the sugar. Fold the flour mixture into the beet mixture with a rubber spatula.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and level with the back of a spoon. Bake for 40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan, once chilled invert on a wire rack.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting by mixing the mascarpone with the icing sugar. The beauty of this frosting is that you decide how sweet (and how pink) you want it, so stop from time to time to lick the spoon. The one that you're using to mix the cheese and the sugar, there's no point in licking another. You may add a few drops of beetroot juice, if you like it pink. But I guess everybody likes pink, so why not?