Saturday, September 27, 2008

Speaking of chocolate betroot fudge cake...


I just found a very fancy recipe for an equivalent. One day, one day I will make it!


The cake
250g good-quality dark chocolate
3 medium free-range eggs
250g light muscovado sugar
1 vanilla pod, cut in half lengthways and seeds scraped out
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons clear honey
40g self-raising flour
40g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
25g cocoa powder
50g ground almonds
250g raw beetroot, peeled and finely grated
100ml strong black coffee
30ml sunflower oil

The topping
150g good-quality dark chocolate
3 tablespoons strong black coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 tablespoons clear honey

1. Preheat a conventional oven to 160ºC, or a fan-assisted one to 140ºC. With the help of a brush and a tiny bit of sunflower oil, grease the surface of a round 20cm diameter by 8cm high loose-bottomed tin and set aside.

2. Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until all dissolved, then set aside to cool.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar, the scraped-out vanilla seeds, 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, cocoa and ground almonds until fully incorporated.

5. Using some kitchen paper, dab the grated beetroot thoroughly to remove some of the excess moisture. Fold in the beetroot, cooled chocolate, coffee and oil with the help of a spatula 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 this time, cover the cake with foil and bake for another 30 minutes.

7. Test the cake by inserting a skewer into the centre to see if it comes out clean (although this cake is so moist that even when the cake is fully cooked, the skewer comes out looking slightly messy). Leave to cool on a wire rack.

8. To make the fudge topping, melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, then remove from the heat and add the coffee and the vanilla essence.

9. At this stage the chocolate will seize up slightly, but it will relax back once you add the honey and gently mix in.

10. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes before icing the cake. Cut the cake through the middle and ice it in the centre and on all sides.

11. Decorate the top with whatever you fancy, but I like using pink flowers, such as tulips or roses, which I plant into the cake with a bit of stem left on.

2 comments:

Aimee said...

What a weird sounding combination - I would never have thought to put beetroot and chocolate together, but then again, chocolate goes with everything, hey?

We can contribute free-range eggs if you want to make it in Nowra!

Anonymous said...

That remainds me... I never gave you the recipe for pumpkin latina goodness!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 rashers bacon, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red capsicum, finely chopped
600g pumpkin, peeled and chopped
2 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup thickened cream
1/2 cup pinenuts, toasted
fresh chives, to garnish

Method:
1. Heat oil in saucepan. Cook bacon until crisp. Set aside. Add onion, garlic and capsicum, cook over medium heat until softened. Add pumpkin and stock, cover, cook 10 minutes or until pumpkin is tender.
2. Combine pumpkin mixture and cream, puree in food processor. Reheat gently.
3. Toss cooked Tortellini with pumpkin sauce and garnish with bacon, pinenuts and chives.

Enjoy! V x