Chocolate and Beetroot Cake

"Chocolate and beetroot? Crazy!"

That's basically what I thought when I first heard of this recipe a few years ago, but I've seen lots of other food bloggers and tv chefs making this cake, as well as one show doing a test to see who could guess which cake had the beetroot in it to which most got it wrong! I decided I had to do it and in fact last summer grew some beets in our veggie patch with this recipe in mind!

I have to admit I'm not a fan of beetroot as my memories of tasting beetroot was the pickled variety and I've since discovered I'm not a fan of most pickled things. Trying this recipe forced me to try some unpickled beetroot and while I discovered I'm not a fan of it on it's own, it's awesome in chocolate cake!!!!!

I took this cake to my youth group for a test and they loved it! Gurned their noses up when they discovered there was beetroot in it but some went back for seconds anyways!



Chocolate and Beetroot Cake
(Sourced from Nigella's Website)

Serves 8-12
Ingredients
175g Plain Flour
10g Baking Powder
75g Cocoa Powder
225g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
225g Raw, roasted, peeled and finely blended beetroot.
200ml Corn Oil

For the Chocolate ganache:
250g Dark Chocolate
250ml Double Cream

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C and grease a 9" baking tin.
2. Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cocoa and sugar).
3. Mix in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the corn oil and blended beetroot.
4. Bake for 40 minutes.
5. Gently melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Once melted stir in the cream until the ganache is smooth.
6. Once the cake has cooled, top with the ganache.
7. EAT!

A Christmas Round up

Nearly every day now I'm being asked several times, "Are you ready?" If it weren't for the fact it's Christmas in 10 days and that's all anyone talks about at this time of year (that and the threat of snow!), I'd  be wondering what on earth I was meant to be ready for! The answer right now is no, I'm not. Having written out a list of what I need to sort before Christmas (presents, food, work, people to see, places to go etc etc) I am feeling the pressure, but whatever will be will be and if things aren't done, things will go on anyway. So with that in mind I'm happy to chill out a bit by making some Christmas goodies in the kitchen.

I've been busy working on my Creole Christmas Cake, and feeding it over the past few weeks with brandy. I've also made a couple of batches of Christmas Fruit Punch (Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine) and even some of Jamie's Mince Pies.

Here's links to my other Christmas recipes, I hope they help and inspire you this Christmas season!

Christmas Mince Pies

Ginger Glazed Gammon

Maple glazed ham

My sage, sausage and apricot stuffing

Christmas roast potatoes, carrots and parsnip

Mum's Christmas Cake

Daring Bakers 21: Gingerbread House

My Christmassy Terrine - a great way to use up those Christmas leftovers!

And here are some other recipes which people find useful over Christmastime.

Honey Roast Parsnips

Great British Pudding Challenge: Canary Pudding

Garlic roast potatoes

Baby spuds in Blankets?

English toffee

Vanilla Fudge

Malteser Cheesecake

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Soy Honey Cocktail Sausages

Lemon Cake with Passionfruit Syrup

Ice Cream Cake

When asked to bring a dessert to a gathering I often stress trying to pick something that the majority of people will like, this becomes even more stressful when you factor my picky husband in. This dessert is a winner for all ages and will be loved by 99.9%.... an almost perfect dessert for serving others but absolutely perfectly delicious.

I've adapted this recipe from Nigella's Ice Cream Cake found in Nigella Express, but really you can adapt this as you like and add whatever you want to it!

This is an incredibly easy recipe but is rather impressive too!

Ice Cream Cake
Serves 8
Ingredients
Chocolate sauce
Dulce de leche sauce
2L vanilla ice cream
3 bars of Cadbury's Crunchie
300g Maltesers

NB You will need a container to let this cake set in that will hold 2 litres.


Recipe
1. Drizzle come chocolate and dulce de leche sauce in your container for setting the cake.

2. In a large bowl leave your ice cream to soften, meanwhile pour half the maltesers into a ziplock bag and crush them. Also crush 3 of the crunchie bars.
3. Once the ice cream has softened, mix in the crushed maltesers, whole maltesers and crushed crunchie.
4. Pour the ice cream into your container, wrap in cling film (ceran wrap) and place in the freezer to set.
5. Remove from the freezer and set your container upside down on a serving plate 30 minutes before serving. The ice cream cake will separate from the container ready for you to add the last crushed  crunchie bar for final decoration... and more chocolate sauce if desired ;o)

Christmas Fruit Punch (Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine)

Each Christmas I try to make something new to add to my list of Christmas recipes, this year I have a few things in mind and this is the first.

I love a good mulled wine so I mustered up the courage to give this recipe a go and decided to go for a non-alcoholic version seeing as it would be being served to people of various ages.. This recipe is adapted from a recipe I was given by a friend, you have to love recipes shared by friends! One problem I had, which isn't even a problem is that the punch looked rather brown when all done, so I added in a few drops of red food colouring to correct.

There is also two ways to prepare this punch - on the hob or in the slow cooker (aka crock pot).

Christmas Fruit Punch (Non-Alcoholic Mulled Wine) 
Makes around 25 servings


Ingredients
2 litres orange juice
1.5 litres apple juice
1 litre cranberry juice
1.5 litres water
500g caster sugar
4 sachets of mulled wine spice
1 large orange studded with around 30-40 whole cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
(Few drops of red food colouring - optional)
1 orange cubed
1 apple cubed


Recipe
ON THE HOB
1. Mix all ingredients (except food colouring, cubed orange and cubed apple) in a large stock pot, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Leave overnight for flavours to infuse.
3. Remove spice sachets, orange and cinnamon sticks (may need to pass through a sieve to filter out cloves and cinnamon stick shards). Can be stored in the fridge for up to one week. Add the food colouring if desired.
4. Add apple and orange cubes and reheat gently, then serve.

IN THE SLOW COOKER/CROCK POT

1. Mix all ingredients (except food colouring, cubed orange and cubed apple) in the slow cooker, set on high and leave for 3 hours.

2. Turn off and leave overnight for flavours to infuse.

3. Remove spice sachets, orange and cinnamon sticks (may need to pass through a sieve to filter out cloves and cinnamon stick shards). Can be stored in the fridge for up to one week. Add the food colouring if desired.

4. Add apple and orange cubes and reheat on low for 2 hours or high for 1 hour, then serve.

Tate & Lyle Christmas Competition

http://youtube.com/watch?v=L3dhzjnBVSQ
http://tasteofchristmas.com/competiti...
http://facebook.com/welovebaking

Email your entries to competitions@tateandlyle.com