This chocolate beet cake recipe is a perfect mix of healthy red beets and the rich indulgence of chocolate. The recipe can be easily adapted to gluten-free, and it still turns out so moist and rich you won’t even need to frost it. Just serve it with a dusting of powdered sugar and a strong cup of home-roasted coffee. Delicious!
Why You’ll Love This Chocolate Beet Cake
Beets in a cake? Could that be? After making zucchini cake, chocolate potato cake, rhubarb breakfast cake, gluten-free pumpkin bread, and black bean brownies, I thought, why not?
Not only do beets make an excellent ingredient for cake, but they were frequently used to add sweetness, color, and bulk to cakes during wartime rationing, which limited sugar and flour. Now, beet cake tends to be a novelty more than a necessity, but that doesn’t mean it is any less delicious or frugal.
Our family loves beets, and we use them in savory recipes like potato peel pie, fall-roasted vegetables, and pickled eggs. We may or may not have even eaten canned beets plain!
If you don’t find yourself excited about beets, you should try this recipe for a sweet treat that packs an unexpected nutritional punch. I promise you won’t taste the beets, and whether or not you tell your family or guests the ingredients is up to you!
Tips for the Perfect Chocolate Beet Cake
Chocolate beet cake is a simple recipe for beginner and seasoned bakers alike. For the perfect chocolate beet cake every time, follow these tips:
- Preheat Your Oven – Don’t neglect to preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit, and resist the temptation to repeatedly open the door of the oven while the cake is baking. This will prevent uneven cooking and prevent the cake from sinking.
- Selecting the Beets – Look for beets that are firm and have a deep red color. Store them in the fridge to keep them fresh. Before using, wash, peel, cook, and puree them to remove excess moisture.
- Room Temperature Ingredients – Using room temperature ingredients allows them to combine smoothly for the best texture.
- Don’t Overmix – Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl sides often to mix the ingredients well, but be careful not to overmix the batter. This will over-activate the gluten in the flour, making your cake tough.
- Parchment Paper – Lining the bottom of your baking pan with parchment paper will keep it from sticking to the bottom, revealing a beautiful chocolate cake that doesn’t need to be hidden by frosting.
The Homestead Kitchen
This recipe for chocolate beet cake was featured in issue No. 38 of the Homestead Kitchen magazine. This is the magazine we wish we had when we first started homesteading!
I wanted to make healthy, delicious meals from scratch that my family loved, but Better Homes & Gardens didn’t really prepare me for the overwhelming abundance of the seasonal, homesteading life.
What do you do with all those eggs? Those bushels of green beans? That 25-lb bag of wheat berries? Or all that basil?
We started publishing the Homestead Kitchen magazine to give homesteaders an affordable, inspiring read chock-full of the BEST recipes, DIY projects, and tips to make homesteading doable and FUN.
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How to Make Chocolate Beet Cake
Supplies Needed
- 9” Round Cake Pan – An 8” square baking pan can also be used. I also highly recommend lining the bottom of your pan with parchment paper. Properly prepared cake pans are the key to frustration-free frosting, as well as baking cakes that do not need frosting.
- Electric Mixer – If you don’t have a hand or stand mixer, you can also use a whisk to mix the batter.
- Mixing Bowls – Two mixing bowls work best so that you can mix the wet and dry ingredients separately before combining them together.
- Spatula – A silicone spatula is a great tool to gently fold the wet and dry ingredients together and prevent overmixing.
Ingredients Needed
- Beet Purée – You can use any method to cook your beets (canned, boiled, roasted, etc.) Just make sure you peel the beets before puréeing.
- Butter, Melted – Learn how to make homemade butter here.
- Olive Oil – If you don’t have olive oil on hand, avocado oil is a good substitute.
- Sugar – I like to use a mix of ¼ cup white sugar, ¼ cup brown sugar, and ¼ cup honey.
- Strong Brewed Coffee – Fresh or freeze-dried coffee enhances the flavor of the cocoa powder, but if you don’t have coffee, you can just use water.
- Egg – To quickly bring your egg to room temperature, run it under warm tap water.
- Vanilla Extract – I typically use a vanilla bean paste, but a high-quality store-bought or homemade vanilla extract works great, too.
- All-Purpose Flour – To make this recipe gluten-free, substitute your favorite gluten-free flour blend.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – The higher quality cocoa powder you use, the better. I source organic, fair-trade cocoa powder from Azure Standard. Homesteading Hack: If you’re a first-time Azure Standard customer, use coupon code “HOMESTEADINGFAMILY15” at checkout for 15% off your order of $100 or more!
- Cornstarch – If you are having a hard time finding non-GMO cornstarch, you can find this at Azure Standard as well.
- Baking Soda – Did you know that baking soda has a variety of other uses beyond baking? Check out these household uses for baking soda.
Step-by-Step Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and line a 9” round cake pan with parchment paper. Set pan aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the melted butter, oil, sugars, honey, coffee, egg, and vanilla until fully combined.
- Fold beet purée into liquid ingredients.
- In a medium bowl, carefully whisk together dry ingredients– flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and cornstarch.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring with a spatula to integrate, then add the remaining dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Use a spatula to smooth the top of the batter, then place the cake in the preheated oven.
- Bake cake for 25-30 minutes, removing from the oven when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out of the cake mostly crumb-free.
- Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes, then run a knife along the edge of the pan and invert it on a cooling rack. Leave the cake to cool completely.
- Once cooled, ice cake or dust with powdered sugar as desired and serve. This cake is amazing with a strong cup of coffee
- Once cool, store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. You can also refrigerate it for up to five days or freeze it for two months.
Did you try this chocolate beet cake recipe? If so, please leave a star rating in the recipe card below. Then snap a photo and tag us on social media @homesteadingfamily so we can see!
FAQ
Adding beets to chocolate cake might seem odd, but it adds a special sweetness, color and moisture.
No, the cake does not taste like beets. Instead the beets give a subtle earthy taste that goes well with chocolate. They don’t take over the chocolate taste but enhance it.
Beets and chocolate create a special flavor and texture mix. Beets add sweetness and moisture, while chocolate brings richness.
Choose firm, smooth, and deep red beets. Roasting or boiling them prior to pureeing brings out their sweetness and blends well with the cake batter.
Mixing the batter is crucial for a delicious cake. Combine dry and wet ingredients carefully to avoid overmixing. This ensures a light and tender crumb.
Store the cake covered at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Other Posts You May Enjoy
- Delicious & Moist Zucchini Cake Recipe
- Delicious Chocolate Potato Cake (Historical Recipe)
- Rhubarb Breakfast Cake Recipe
- Easy Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread Recipe | Fall Favorite
- Delicious Black Bean Brownie Recipe
- Traditional Potato Peel Pie Recipe
- Canned Beets: A Homestead Pantry Staple
- The Best Pickled Egg Recipe
Chocolate Beet Cake
Equipment
- 9" Round Cake Pan
- Electric Mixer
- Mixing Bowls
- Measuring Utensils
- spatula
Ingredients
- 1 cup beet purée
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup sugar or 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup honey
- 2 Tablespoons coffee strongly brewed
- 1 whole egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour plus 2 Tablespoons
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder plus 2 Tablespoons
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Grease and line a 9” round cake pan with parchment paper. Set pan aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the melted butter, oil, sugars, honey, coffee, egg, and vanilla until fully combined.
- Fold beet purée into liquid ingredients.
- In a medium bowl, carefully whisk together dry ingredients – flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and cornstarch.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the wet, stirring with a spatula to integrate, then add the remaining dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Use a spatula to smooth the top of the batter, then place the cake in the preheated oven.
- Bake cake for 25-30 minutes, removing from the oven when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out of the cake mostly crumb-free.
- Cool the cake in the pan for 20 minutes, then run a knife along the edge of the pan and invert it on a cooling rack. Leave the cake to cool completely.
- Once cooled, ice cake or dust with powdered sugar as desired and serve.
Notes
- Storing the Cake: Once cool, store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. You can also refrigerate it for up to five days or freeze it for two months.
