Gluten free chocolate beet cake made with almond flour and sweetened with coconut sugar. A healthy spin on red velvet cake, and a deliciously moist treat!
This chocolate beet cake made me fall helplessly in love with beets.
Moist, rich, and perfectly sweet, this amazing gluten free chocolate cake recipe is a beautiful celebration of complex flavors.
We get the classic chocolate cake flavor, enhanced by the natural sweetness and earthiness of red beets.
Red velvet cake at its absolute finest, my friends!
Ingredients for Chocolate Beet Cake:
This amazing chocolate cake recipe is made with almond flour, brown rice flour, cooked beets, eggs, almond milk, coconut sugar, avocado oil, chocolate chips, and raw cacao powder.
The combination of almond flour and rice flour brings a light and fluffy texture with added richness, as almond flour contains healthy fats. I find almond flour makes the absolute best cakes!
I haven’t tested the recipe using a different kind of flour, so I don’t have suggestions for swapping out the almond flour.
You can easily swap the coconut sugar for any granulated sweetener you prefer. Use regular cane sugar, brown sugar, or sugar-free sweetener.
Cake with Benefits:
Another attractive characteristic in addition to its incredible taste is the health benefits of the beets. Folate, Vitamin C, B Vitamins, antioxidants, and so much more!
Coconut sugar contains B Vitamins and minerals, and raw cacao powder is loaded with antioxidants. Almond flour is a good source of protein and healthy fat.
How to Make Chocolate Beet Cake:
- Cook the beets using your preferred method. See recipe card below for boiling instructions.
- Blend the beets with the almond milk in a blender in order to puree them.
- Mix the wet ingredients together in a bowl (this includes the beet mixture). In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
- Stir together the wet mixture with the dry mixture to create your chocolate cake batter.
- Bake in the oven, cool, slice, then take one step closer to bliss.
Store cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Freeze cake in a large zip lock bag for up to 3 months.
If you love chocolate cake recipes, also try these reader favorites.
More Chocolate Cake Recipes:
- Almond Flour Chocolate Cake
- Black Bean Chocolate Cake
- Healthy Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake
- The Best Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake
Wholesome gluten free red velvet cake, let’s go!
Chocolate Beet Cake Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups super fine almond flour
- ½ cup brown rice flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1.5 cups coconut sugar or a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar
- 2/3 cup raw cacao powder
- ¼ cup dark chocolate chips optional
- 2 medium sized red beets cooked
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup almond milk
- 1/3 cup avocado oil
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Bring a full pot of water to a boil and add the beets (peel on). Boil for about 25 – 30 minutes until beets are soft when poked with a fork. Note: you can use your preferred cooking method for preparing the beets. You can also use store-bought pre-cooked beets.
- 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, avocado 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 9” round cake pan (or 8” 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 post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission off items you purchase at no additional cost to you.
Oh, my gosh, this was SO GOOD! I won a Farmer’s Market basket and turned to this webpage to figure out how to use up the beets! Based on the other commenters’ responses, it seemed like a forgiving recipe, so I modified it a tad based on what I had on hand… I used only one cup of coconut sugar. used butter instead of oil, and chocolate brown rice protein powder instead of brown rice flour, and didn’t use the optional chocolate chips. Oh, my gosh, it is AMAZING. I’ve had it for breakfast twice already and I’m going to make another for my aunt who has celiac’s disease. This recipe is definitely going in my arsenal!
Yaaaaay I’m so happy you like the cake, Vanessa! It’s one of my favorites, too! Thanks for letting me know your change-ups! I’ll have to try the cake with butter – sounds delicious!
I made this today, and used half cacao powder, half King Arthur’s Double Dutch Dark Cocoa. I used half cream (half and half) and water, and gluten-free flour instead of brown rice flour. I might have used a bit too much on the beets, I later saw your comment as to quantity, but it still turned out so nice! I took a dab of the batter and baked a little ramekin of it in the microwave while the big cake baked in the oven, so i got a sneak taste! MMM! Just the recipe i was searching for, with my LoveBeets Organic precooked beets (Costco) and almond flour. Thank you! I will be making this for my girlfriends very soon! I think a simple ganache of some chocolate chips and cream drizzled would make a nice topping, or a berry sauce under it, on the plate (or both!).
Wahoooo I’m so happy you made your own rendition of the cake and it turned out fabulously. I love the idea of using some of the batter to make a single serving to tide you over while the rest of the cake bakes. So happy it all worked out and thanks so much for the feedback! xo
Julia, The cake is just so beautiful in it’s rise, and yummy in flavor and moisture! Still a bit warm from the oven, oh, my!! With coffee for breakfast, mmm! I used half cacao powder only because I recently bought some, as I LOVE the cocoa I mentioned. The Honeyville farms almond flour I use has clumps that are kind of hard to take care of completely, so I did have some that showed up in the cake, but don’t effect taste. I think it’s just that I am down to the end of the bag. I had kind of forgotten about my bag of coconut sugar, and this took the rest, thanks for the reminder about it! I can see so many possibilities for this cake! Layered desserts (I love Glory Albin’s book on these) and layer cakes, etc. I have a Kahlua frosting that usually is for brownies, but will be good on this!
Hi, I would like to see that recipe. Please post or email me it. Thanks, Nancy
Made this cake tonight– WOW — so good. My only change was to use yogurt instead of almond milk, because its what I had on hand. Thank you so much for this. The salt on top is extreme goodness.
I’m so happy you enjoyed the cake, Mel! I’ll have to bake it again using yogurt – that sounds amazing! xo
I guess material advertising and marketing as well as incoming advertising
and marketing are the expected youngsters of an undead zombie SEO.
Marketing professionals who have a solid approach can make use of Facebook
likes in promoting their brand and to construct brand photo.
Hi! Is oat flour a good substitute for rice flour?? I am sensitive to rice ( along with almost every other grain but oats) Thanks!
Hi Claire, oat flour is a great substitute for brown rice flour! It tends to come out slightly more dense than rice flour, but for a pancake, I say density is a great thing! Use a 1:1 ratio when you substitute. Let me know how they turn out!!
can i use regular whole milk instead of almond milk?
You certainly can, Jaclyn! Let me know how you like the cake 🙂
Making this tonight, but roughly how many grams/cups should the beetroots be? I’m afraid mine are small and I’m worried I won’t get the amount right… :$
Lu, that’s a great question and I should have been more careful about measuring it. If I were to guess, I would say I ended up with 3/4 to 1 cup worth of beets. When you make the batter and you don’t have enough beet, you can add coconut milk, almond milk, or a little oil to keep the cake moist. Best of luck and let me know how it turns out!
I just tried this recipe because I have beets from a CSA and was tired of the beet soup. I was a little afraid I wouldn’t like it (or my guests!), but… it’s a GREAT cake recipe! Very moist, delicious! I just downed the sugar quantity to a cup (I’m French, we don’t like cakes that are too sweet:), and made whipped cream with powdered vanilla and homemade powdered sugar (I use the mortar, avoids making sugar dust) to go with it. It was delicious. My beloved and I had the two leftover slices on the following day, I had mine with coffee, it was very good =) I was a little sad I had forgotten to put it in the fridge, I’m sure it would have made it very truffle-like…
As for the color, it was plain chocolaty-brown! No red! Next time I use my beets in a cake, I’ll look into the Red Velvet using beets and no food coloring… it’s apparently tricky to master, but I’ll give it a try.
And thanks for sharing that great recipe!
Oh, and I used butter instead of grape seed oil, which I didn’t have!
Celia, I’m so glad you liked it! Prior to making the cake, I thought it’d be one of those recipes that were somewhat healthy but not very wonderful tasting, and boy was I wrong. I absolutely love this cake and am happy you enjoyed it too. In terms of red velvet cupcakes, my friend abby has a recipe you may want to check out! You can find it here: http://www.seaweedandsassafras.com/2012/09/beet-red-velvet-cupcakes.html
Hi Julia, your friend’s link does not work–fyi.
Can almond flour be used as a substitute?
Hi there, Abby, the author of Seaweed and Sassafras discontinued her site, so unfortunately her recipe is no longer available. There are quite a few recipes for beet cakes and cupcakes on the internet using regular all-purpose flour, though, so you should have plenty of options 🙂
I used vegetable oil instead of grapeseed, and used mixed sugars instead of coconut sugar. I didn’t do any of the sifting involved – just stirred together anything wet and then piled on top anything dry into one big bowl. Put the batter into a cupcake pan and they turned out great, none of those extra steps required!
Thanks KC! I can go a little overboard on my instructions so I’m happy to hear you went in headfirst and the recipe turned out! Beet cupcakes sound like a nice little b-day treat for some lucky human 😉 Hope you had a fun weekend!
Hi Julia, so happy to find your lovely blog. I am going to make the cake this weekend. Just wondering, have you ever used the vacuum-packed cooked beets for this? They should work, right? Thanks!
Hey Cathy! I’ve actually never used vacuum-packed beets..As long as they can be blended up and aren’t overly juicy or overly dry (same water content as fresh beets), I would assume they’d work. Let me know if you try it!!
Thanks. Also note, the vanilla extract is not listed in your list of ingredients. I’m assuming a teaspoon! I’m also going to melt the chocolate chips and add it to the egg/oil mixture, I hope that works.
Hey Cathy, thanks for letting me know! I’ll add the vanilla extract now 🙂 There’s no doubt in my mind that melting the chocolate will turn out phenomenal too. Good luck and let me know how you like it!!
Beets have such a wonderful earthy, richness that they are a great partner for chocolate. I would love to try this cake. Your photos have me sold!
So glad you like the idea of marrying beets with chocolate! It took me a while to work myself up to making the cake but it truly does turn out incredible! Let me know if you try it! 🙂
I have never try baking chocolate cake using beet. This is a great idea adding all the goodness and natural sweetness of beet into a chocolate cake.
Can you replace the brown rice flour for another alternative?
Hi Shar,
You can use oat flour or a regular gluten-free flour blend 🙂
I love this! That cake looks phenomenal – so incredibly moist, fluffy and decadent. I can’t believe it was made using beets (mind is blown!). I love coconut sugar too – I’ve been using it for a while. It makes me feel like I’m being healthy even though I’m eating tons of baked goods. I’m really digging your writing style too – I’m so glad I’m part of the Chocolate Party so that I can discover other awesome bloggers.
I love beets and chocolate and although I have seen a couple of recipes that call for both I’ve been a little reticent, but I have to say your cake looks absolutely stunning! and the sprinkle of salt, oh my!
Thanks for participating in this month chocolate party, hope you’ll join us again every month
this look great- So glad to be posting with you through the chocolate party 🙂
Whoa! I’m in heaven here. This cake sounds amazing and I love that cake can kinda be health food too! I’ve been telling myself I’m going to make a chocolate beet cake. After seeing yours, I know I need to make this happen in my kitchen. Lovely!