Originally posted June 11, 2017. Updated 4 November, 2019.
On the days you just need cake, these vegan chocolate beetroot cakes with chocolate avocado frosting are a sweet and rich treat minus the guilt. Made with sunflower seeds, raw cocoa and robust beets they are wholesome, gluten-free and delicious cake treats everyone can enjoy.
You'll have to excuse me if you hear the sound of my face planting in to my keyboard today; we are transitioning the elf to her "big girl" bed. And it's a process. A process where I sleep on the couch to hear if she calls out and end up on the floor in her room.
We have been doing this for three nights now and I am beginning to think I gave birth to the terminator. As I wake up peeling my eyelashes apart so I can see, the Elf bounds out of bed, indefatigable. I know her sleep is broken but she doesn't seem to feel it.
It is one of the universe's twisted little jokes that children can suck the very marrow from your sleep but not have any need for it themselves.
UPDATE: Two years later and our little one has only just gone in to her own bed full-time! What the....?
Amongst all this sleepless chaos, however, we have cake. Vegan Chocolate Beetroot Cakes. And cake equals good.
While I am not one to run from a full-fledged chocolate binge - I'm looking at you raw caramel fudge truffles- it does the mind good knowing these vegan chocolate beetroot cakes at least try to be healthy. They contain simple, whole ingredients:
- Raw beetroot
- Sunflower seeds
- Buckwheat flour
- Apple sauce and
- Cocoa
Combined they create a moist little cake that isn't too sweet. With a half-cup of brown sugar shared amongst twelve cakes, it isn't too bad on the sugar either.
I paired our cakes with an inspired chocolate avocado frosting but if you wanted a sweeter topping, the chocolate ganache from my loved up raw chocolate cake would work a treat. Or you could try my basic vegan chocolate frosting recipe. A vegan cream cheese topping would also be heavenly; note to self.
Chocolate and Beetroot Are a Match Made in Heaven
Beetroot and Chocolate are made for each other. While the chocolate provides that familiar rich cocoa flavour, the beetroot lends an earthy sweetness. I used sunflower seeds to create a nut-free cake but almond meal would add another nutty flavour layer.
Health-wise, beetroots are packed with essential nutrients, are a great source of fiber, folate (vitamin B9), manganese, potassium, iron, and vitamin C. While cocoa is rich in polyphenols, which have significant health benefits, including reduced inflammation and improved cholesterol levels | Source: Healthline.
These lovely little cakes are a little gift to myself; if I can't have sleep I will l have cake.
These little vegan chocolate beetroot cakes are a gorgeously chocolatey treat made better by wholesome ingredients and a wonderful balance of flavours.
Enjoy.
If you need a little more beetroot in your life try my awesome beet butter (nut free) recipe or my get glowing beetroot and berry chia pots.
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If you like this recipe, please check out my cookbook. Great Vegan Meals for the Carnivorous Family is full of simple, carnivore-approved family recipes.
Chocolate Beetroot Cakes
Equipment
- blender or food processor
Ingredients
Beetroot and Chocolate Cakes
Wet Ingredients
- 180 grams raw beetroot weighed after peeling, grated on the larger hole side of a box grater.
- ½ cup / 125ml dairy-free milk I like soy milk for baking.
- ½ cup / 125ml apple sauce
- ¾ cup / 130g granulated sugar raw
- ¼ cup / 60ml olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- ½ cup / 75g sunflower seeds ground in to a meal like almond meal or just use almond meal if you are not nut-free
- ½ cup / 65g buckwheat flour sifted
- ½ cup / 45g cacao or cocoa powder sifted
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Chocolate Avocado Frosting
- 2 ripe avocados
- ⅓ cup + 1 tbsp cacao or cocoa around 45 - 50 grams
- 2-3 tablespoon maple syrup
- pinch sea salt
Instructions
For the Cakes
- Preheat the oven to 170°C (340℉) or 150℃ fan (302℉) and grease or line a 12-pan muffin or cupcake pan. I usually get 10-11 cakes from this recipe. You can make it into a small 6-inch cake, just line and grease the tin. The baking time is around the same.
- Peel and grate the beetroot into a large bowl. I peel and weigh my beetroot and then grate it leaving a small nub at the end to protect my fingers (I have a healthy fear of my box grater). Don't worry too much about it - I would say about 175g goes into the cake.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients to the beetroot and mix well to combine.
- To make the sunflower meal, pop the seeds in a blender or a small food processor. Blitz until you have the texture of almond meal.
- In a separate bowl, combine the sunflower seed meal (or almond meal), buckwheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
- Add the wet mixture to the dry.
- Mix until combined and spoon evenly among the lined cake moulds - fill each around two-thirds of the way up.
- Bake in the oven for 21 -24 minutes or until the sides of the cakes are pulling away and the top is domed. You should be able to gently push the top of the cake and have it given you resistance. If it feels too soft on the top, pop the cake in for another minute or two and check again.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before gently removing each cake out of the moulds to cook completely.
For the Avocado Chocolate Frosting
- To make the avocado frosting, place the avocados in a food processor and process until smooth. Add the cacao or cocoa, two tablespoons of maple syrup and a pinch of sea salt.
- Process until smooth and taste. If the avocado is still coming through add the third tablespoon of maple and a tiny bit more cocoa. Process to combine.
- Fill a piping bag with the frosting and pipe on to each cake before serving.
Notes
- I peel and weigh my beetroot and then grate it leaving a small nub at the end to protect my fingers - I have a healthy fear of my box grater and don't get me started on my mandoline slicer. Don't worry too much about it - just get most of the beetroot in. No cake is worth your finger tips.
- I prefer making these cake as cupcakes and line my pans rather than grease them. While greasing is fine if you are confident of the non-sticky-ness of your muffin tray, lining your moulds takes out the guess work. I use washable silicone liners.
- Wear gloves! Beetroot stains. Trust me - I've been there.
- Oven temperatures vary (up to 20 degrees!) so I have set the temp at around 170 degrees C. These cakes are delicate so we are going a little more gently with the heat. I recommend buying an oven thermometer if you're not sure. They are only around 15 or 20 bucks and they are well worth the investment.
Nutrition
Gillian Blacklee
Hi Amanda, I have recently become vegan, as well gluten free. I love baking but unfortunately am having a really tough time.
I followed your chocolate & beetroot cup cake & they looked lovely going in but they came out half the size & stodgy. Do you think it could be my oven ?? Thanks geaps
Amanda
Hey Gillian,
No-one likes stodgy! I don't think it would be your oven - your baking powder freshness or maybe a tad too much mixing might be the culprit. I haven't made this recipe in a long time, so if you're OK with it, I might try and whip a batch up this week and troubleshoot the recipe. It's been while.
In the meantime, check out https://pureella.com for some gluten-free vegan recipes. She specialises in gluten-free and plant based cooking. 🙂
Gillian Blacklee
Thanks heaps Amanda,
Yours look so yummy.
It did spring to mind later that I had substituted the apple sauce as directed in one of the comments & also cooked & pureed the beetroot. Could it have been too wet??
The baking powered is a new tube.
The taste was still good lol & I will definitely have another try
Amanda
Hey Gillian, how are you? I re-made the cakes today and they turned out the way they have before. Having said that, I did troubleshoot the recipe to make it more user-friendly for every oven...I have re-written it and separated the wet ingredients from the dry. Because the cakes are GF, we aren't developing gluten when mixing, but I think mixing them separately and then combining them will make for a lighter cake. I've also reduced the oven temperature - I have a new oven since I made these cakes - and I am thinking baking the cakes a little slower and lower gives you more control over their "done-ness". If your oven runs a bit hot - like most do - it may certainly have contributed to the shrinkage and stodginess. They may have over-baked a touch. Or a tonne, depending on your oven. I haven't had the chance to shoot step-by-step images but I will as soon as I can so you can check out the batter etc. Ummmm...I think that's it. Oh, I've also included some detailed notes in the recipe card and also the blog post above. 🙂 I hope that helps and please reach out anytime. x
Julie
Hi Amanda, I love this recipe and have just made it in a loaf tin but it took for EVER to cook - can you tell me of the oven temperature you recommend is for a fan forced oven? TIA
Amanda
Hi Julie,
Good question! I use an oven thermometer and set my fan oven to 170. I generally bake loaves for around an hour but as a loaf, this cake would take longer I suspect. It is denser without any flour in it. How long did it take you? I must admit, I've never baked it as a loaf before. 🙂
Julie
Thanks everyone below for answering my question before I even asked it: will it work as one big cake? I am planning a cake for hubby's 70th - he is not vegan but vegetarian - and I just found out that one can make chocolate mousse simply from 70% chocolate and hot water! (Google it) So now I'm toying with the idea of making a totally vegan, gluten free and low sugar mud and mousse cake that EVERYONE can eat.
Amanda
Oh, my gosh Julie, that mousse sounds awesome (is that the one you whisk and whisk?) Please come back and tell us how it goes. x
Rae
Based on what I had in the cupboards, I swapped out the oil for extra milk and the sunflower seeds to quinoa flour. I also baked it as a big square brownie tin. Turned out fab and oil free this way too. Thanks
Amanda
I love this, Rae! I am so glad the recipe worked anyway and we now have an oil-free version. Nice! x
Lesh Karan
Thanks for this recipe, Amanda - I made these and they were divine! I iced them with a ganache made with 70% dark chocolate, coconut cream and a dash of maple syrup. So delicious and so moist.
Amanda
Oh, that's fantastic Lesh. Thanks so much for letting me know. I am so happy you enjoyed them.x
DANIELA WOGNUM
I just made this this morning and was in heaven, it's fantastic ! I was lazy and made one big cake instead of individual ones and no icing. I love it as is Thank you so much for sharing your recipes. I have just discovered your website with all the mouthwatering recipes and pictures, have saved it in my favourites. I will certainly be trying lots of your other tempting treats, looking at the red lentil dahl ...
Have a wonderful day, thanks again
Amanda
Oh, thanks so much for telling me Daniela and I'm so happy you loved the recipe. I love these little cakes and I'm so glad to hear it worked as a larger cake for you. Perfect! Thanks again and have a wonderful day. x
Deanna Smith
Hello
Could you please convert the amount of Buckwheat flour to grams please?
Many thanks
Amanda
Hi Deanna,
I've weighed the half cup (AUS) and it's 65 grams. I also doubled checked the other measures. I hope that helps. Have a great weekend.
Rochelle
Hello! This looks divine, I NEED to make these today, please tell me, I’m not a fan of the flavour of raw beets in food, I’ve tried in cake as well. I prefer cooked beets and I have some, I’m wondering, can I use cooked beets in your lovely recipe please or not?
Amanda
Hi Rochelle,
I have only used the raw beets in this recipe but it should work. If you boiled the beets I would blend them up to a textured puree. If you roasted the beets add a touch more liquid to the recipe - say another tbsp or two of the dairy-free milk - to make up for the loss in moisture. I would mash the roasted beets before popping them in the batter. I hope you enjoy them! I would love to know how it goes. A.
Kim Andryc
I made these last night, and I didn't like the texture of the raw beets. I'm going to try again today with roasted beets. I'll let you know how it goes! The avocado frosting was divine.
Amanda
Oh, such a shame about the beets - I hope you like the texture better after cooking them. How good is that avocado frosting, right? One of my favourites. Let mw know how you go Kim 🙂 and thanks for writing. A.
Alba
Hi" Could we change the apple sauce for another ingredient? I don't have it at home but I want to try these cupcakes!
Amanda
Hi Alba,
You could try swapping it for a 1/2 cup of vegan buttermilk (put a 1/2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar in a half-cup measure and fill the rest with dairy-free milk). I would then add another 2-3 tbsp of sugar to the recipe to sweeten it. I haven't tried it but it should work. Let me know how it goes! Cheers. A
Jansen Andre
Can you make this in cake form? Instead of cupcake
Amanda
Hi Jansen,
I have only made these as cupcakes but you should be able to transfer it to a cake recipe. I would try baking it in a 20cm pan for around 23 - 26 minutes at the same temperature (or until cooked through). Maybe add another 1/2 tsp of baking powder for good luck.
Let me know how you go! Cheers. A.
Valentina
Hi, have you tried making them in cake form? Did you use the ingredients for the 12 cup cakes or more than that? Any tips and suggestions? I need to make a birthday cake.
Thank you
Amanda
Hi Valentina,
I haven't made this in cake form but I remember one of my lovely readers did. The rule of thumb for converting cupcake recipes to cake recipes is 2 batches will make an 8-inch cake. Divide the mixture between 20cm layer cake tins and bake for approximately 22-25 minutes at the same temperature indicated by the recipe.
Good luck, Valentina! x
Nancy
OMG! This has become my no.1 preffered way of eating beetroot! I’ve made this 3 times now and they always gone so quickly! Thank you for the recipe!
Amanda
Nancy, you've made my day. Thank you! Big cyber hug coming your way.