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
I LOVE baking that incorporates hidden nutrients like this!! And the photography looks stunning. Just lovely!
Stunning photos! And I love that you used coconut sugar…I’ll have to track some down to test ๐
Yumm! I love beets in anything, so this cake looks amazing!
Thanks for stopping by my blog so I could find yours!
you inspired me to cook more beets last night. Beet soup anyone? So good. The only thing missing was a slice of this beet cake for dessert! ๐
That coconut sugar is so cool!! It’s like cake bling ๐ I love that you used beets in this, and that nice, moist, fluffy, tasty, picture is just torture! ๐
Oh, this looks yummy. See, I’m sensible and like chocolate. I haven’t heard of coconut sugar, so I’ll have to see if I can find any in our small farm town. Then, once I find some, I’m a-gonna make me a chocolate beet cake!
You make baking with beets looks SO good, girl.
Julia, your status has just been elevated to genius!!! A chocolate cake that’s good for you is brilliant. However, for me the chocolate chips are not an option, they’re a must.
Gurrrrrrrl, you slay me! Seriously, I want to dive head first into this cake and swim around regardless if I turn red!
I willingly went red for this cake too. And there’s absolutely no reason to feel guilty about it, cause there’s nothing but amazing ingredients in it! We can be red together and no one will judge!
I’ve seen so many recipes for beet cake recently! I love that yours involves almond flour. YUM!
Wow! This sounds super tasty. I dont think I’ve had beets anyway but pickled. In a cake is always a good place to try veggies ๐
you know how I feel about beets. This is next level and I am intrigued. I need a slice of this cake asap!
What a glorious gluten free cake! There something magical in the pairing of beets with chocolate, such a heady combination of flavors!
Such a lovely cake, and how cool that it’s gluten free too! Great recipe!
Jayyyzzuuss. It’s 10:30 AM and now all I want to do is eat beets. In cake of course.
I use agave all the time, but I’ve never even heard of coconut sugar! I’ll have to check that out it sounds awesome.
I can barely handle the deliciousness going on here, especially in that photo of the slice of cake. HOLY MOLY.