Vegetable and Chocolate Loaf

With young root vegetables just starting to come into season (and being at their sweetest), today I am posting a rather unusual, but delicious, recipe to use these vegetables.

There is a long tradition of using sweet root vegetables to prepare sweet cakes and pies. They marry well with sugar and with chocolate and give you a moist cake with considerable lasting power.


Beetroot is one of my favourites, as it gives an intense colour (the recipe below is for a Beetroot and Chocolate Loaf, but carrots and sweet potatoes also work well.

Beetroot and Chocolate Loaf

Ingredients:

240g self-raising flour
30g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
120g caster sugar
pinch of salt
90g dark chocolate (at least 80% cocoa solids), melted
90g butter, melted

120g beetroot, peeled an grated (raw is the best, but whole, pickled, baby beetroot can be used)
2 eggs, beaten

Instructions:

Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Meanwhile place the chocolate and butter in a bowl and set over a pan of lightly simmering water to melt. When melted stir to combine then add the sugar and grated sweet potatoes. Lightly whisk the eggs and add the chocolate mix to this. Stir the egg and chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients until you have a smooth batter then turn into a well-greased 1kg loaf tin.


Place in an oven pre-heated to 180°C and bake for about 50 minutes, or until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake emerges cleanly. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin then tip onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

If you have enjoyed this recipe, then you can find more traditional and modern cake recipes here.