Gluten-free chocolate beet cake made with almond flour and sweetened naturally with coconut sugar – a healthy take on chocolate cake, and a deliciously moist treat!
Profondeur. Depth: listening to French music while allowing things to be as they are. Depth means absorbing words that are seductive, painful, tempting without having to know what they actually mean. It means feeling. Letting rationality take a hike and letting empathy take control; allowing sense of smell to guide. Welcoming the full spectrum of shapes and colors. Embracing the sound of beauty without need for comprehension. Tasting. Feeling deep and rich.
Chocolate beet cake is alluring.
Appealing, attractive, tempting, interesting, coquettish, glamorous, fascinating, flirtatious, enthralling, charming. All synonyms for a word that begins with a โsekโ and ends with a โsฤโ. And Cheeky. This, dear vixen, is your Valentineโs Day cake; it won the โBiggest Flirtโ award in your high school yearbook, so heed my advice โ make it for you lovey dovey on Loverโs Day.
Moons ago, I came across the sisters at Natural Sweet Recipes. They use all sorts of alternatives to cane sugar, such as agave, date sugar, powdered honey, maple syrup, etc. in their fun and very approachable recipes. I was immediately drawn to their use of coconut sugar, so when I finally brought a bag home from my local natural food store, I let my obsessive personality loose and went a little coconut sugar crazy.
And it all started with this beet cake. Hereโs what I learned about coconut sugar: It is rich in minerals and B Vitamins. B VITAMINS AND MINERSLS! IN YOUR SUGAR! I thought Iโd point out that there are vitamins and minerals in coconut sugar.
This sugar has been used in South East Asia for thousands of years. Thousands, and Iโm just now learning about it! Thatโs a big one up if I ever saw one! It can be used as a 1:1 ratio to replace cane sugar; it is coarse, has a brown tint and has a lovely nutty, slightly salty (some say caramel) flavor.
The other attractive characteristics of the Chocolate Beet Cake is the health benefits of the beets (folate, Vitamin C, B Vitamins, etc) the raw cacao powder (antioxidants galore, sing it!), and almond flour (proTEIN!). The texture is soft and dense, the way a deep and rich cake should be.
Iโd hate to do this to you, butโฆ.
Hi, Iโm Almond Flour Chocolate Beet Cake. Iโm Cheeky.
Glooooooory beet thy cake!
Chocolate Almond Flour Beet Cake (gluten free)
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups super fine almond flour
- ยฝ cup brown rice flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ยฝ teaspoon baking powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1-1/2 cups coconut sugar or a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar
- 2/3 cup raw cacao powder
- ยผ cup dark chocolate chips optional
- 2 medium sized red beets
- 3 eggs
- ยฝ cup almond milk
- 1/3 cup grapeseed oil
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Bring a full pot of water to a boil and add the beets (peel on). Boil for about 25 โ 30 minutes until beets are soft when poked with a fork.
- Drain the water and allow beets to cool. Chop the beets into eighths and add the beets to a blender along with the almond milk. Blend until smooth and set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, brown rice flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cacao powder and coconut sugar. Whisk to incorporate all dry ingredients together.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, grapeseed oil and vanilla extract together.
- Add the pureed beets (once the puree is cool enough to not cook the eggs) to the egg mixture and mix to combine. Pour the wet beet mixture into the mixing bowl with all of the dry ingredients and stir until combined.
- Line a 9โ round cake pan (or 8โ square pan) with parchment paper.
- Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the cake tests clean when poked in the center with a toothpick. 32 minutes was the magic number for me.
- Allow cake to cool then lift up on the parchment paper to set it on a cutting board.
- Garnish with very coarse sea salt (optional).
- Serve generous size portions of this delicious cake! Bonus points: Add homemade whipped cream on top.
Nutrition
This is hands down my go to chocolate cake recipe! Itโs so moist and rich. I often make it and then once cooled top it with chocolate Baileyโs mousse or something of the like.
Thanks for this amazing cake!
My pleasure, Laurie! I’m thrilled you enjoy it. It’s one of my favorites! ๐
it is very tasty and healthy i like it
Excellent this post. i love your post. thanks for useful post.
Really this would be special and great chocolate beet cake recipe, Julia! Love healthy desserts! Thanks, Julia for sharing!
I’m so happy you like it, Bella! Thank you for the sweet comment! xo
Hi
Can I use flax eggs instead of chicken eggs? For those who can’t have eggs.
Thank you.
Hi Linda! Truthfully, I haven’t had much luck with flax eggs in baking, as I find the texture always turns out dense. If you’re okay with the texture being denser than fluffy, I would say it’s worth a shot ๐
hi.. is there any substitution for the rice fllour? all i have on hand is coconut, almond, oat, or arrowroot..
Hi Jen,
I haven’t tested the recipe without rice flour, but I think almond flour would be a great replacement. You can also try oat flour, although I think it may turn out fairly dense. Let me know what you end up trying! xo
Gorgeous pictures. I made these chocolate beet cake for the super bowl party and it was a crowd favorite. I’m also gonna pin this post on my Pinterest board my followers will love it. Thanks for sharing, Julia!
I’m so glad you and your guests liked it! Thanks for letting me know! xo
Ih, and cake didn’t hold together. Not sure if I took it out of pan too soon. Next time I will add Xanthum gum.
Hi Julia, made this cake yesterday and it was the best “healthy” cake I have made. I made a chocolate beet cake before but it came out really dense. Must have been coconut or oat flour. Anyway, I minimized almond flour by 1/4 cup and I wish I had measured by beet mixture. To guess, I probably had 1.5c. I also used coconut oil and coconut milk. It came out super moist and airy. I did not add as much of sugar yet next time I will. Or I might add dates to it. Once cake cooled, I topped it with a strawberry pureed sauce and coconut whipped cream. This is a keeper!
I’m so happy you made the cake – the strawberry sauce and coconut whipped cream sound amazing! My guess is the cake would have needed to either bake a bit longer or sit longer (or both) in order to keep from falling apart. If you notice the cake holds together now that it has sat for a few hours, then the culprit is that it just needed to rest longer. If it continues falling apart, it may have needed a bit more flour and longer bake time.