Raw chocolate beetroot cake is delicious! I never thought I’d say that as when I looked at the recipe I had reservations. In fact, it was a friend that made it first and bought it to work for me to sample. I was sold pretty quick. The base is not overly sweet, but packed full of nutrient rich, delicious ingredients. And the chocolate icing is AMAZING! Better than any regular icing. No kidding.
The two main ingredients of the cake are beetroot and brazil nuts – both incredibly nutrient rich foods. Beetroot is high vitamin C – great at scavenging free radicals and helping keep your immune system in top shape. Beetroot is also high in nitrates which can help reduce blood pressure. It also contains the compound betalain which gives beetroot it’s beautiful red colour and functions as a powerful antioxidant.
Brazil nuts are one of the best sources of selenium – a mineral lacking in many NZ diets. An adequate selenium intake is important for thyroid health as well as helping to prevent coronary artery disease and some cancers as it helps protect against oxidative damage in the body. Brazil nuts are also packed full of essential fatty acids which are great for heart health and your skin.
The recipe is also a good source of dietary fibre which will help keep the digestive system working well.
I altered my recipe slightly and used dried cherries instead of currants, but feel free to switch the cherries out for currants. You can find the original recipe over at Dr Libby’s website. I also made half the recipe and did a slice rather than a cake as it’s a large serve! Cut into small slices as it’s quite rich.
Raw Chocolate Beetroot Cake
1 cup Brazil nuts
2 medjool dates
1/2 cup dried cherries or currants
1/4 cup organic maple syrup
1 large beetroots, grated
2 cup desiccated coconut
1/4 cup cacao powder
1.5 tablespoons of ground psyllium husk
In a food processor, blend the Brazil nuts until they are crumbly flour. Add the dates, dried cherries and maple syrup and process until smooth. Next, add the grated beetroot and process for another minute or two. Lastly add the coconut, cacao powder and psyllium husks and blend for a good couple of minutes until everything is well mixed and has a fine texture.You don’t want big bits of grated beetroot in there – it should be quite fine and an even texture.
Press into a small slice tin and place in the freezer while you make the icing. It needs about 20-30 minutes to set hard enough to put the icing on top.
Icing
50g cacao butter or coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup raw cashew nuts
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp tamari
Melt the cacao butter or coconut oil over a low heat and leave to cool slightly. In a food processor, blend the cashews, cacao powder, maple syrup, lemon juice and tamari for a minute or so until the nuts start to grind up. As the blade is still running pour in the melted cacao butter and process into the mix is smooth and the nuts are ground.
Spoon the icing over the cake and refrigerate until the icing is set, about 15 minutes. You can sprinkle some coconut flakes on top too if you like.
Eat and enjoy! Store in the fridge.
Funnily enough I was looking at the beetroot cake over the weekend! Do you think the tamari makes or breaks the icing? Will have to make this sometime soon!
You could leave it out – it adds a little saltiness, so you could just add a pinch of salt? The icing is amazing!
This looks so good! I really want to give it a try. Where do you get your cacao powder? Is there a certain brand you recommend?
Man this look so freaking good! I don’t have a food processor and am always put off recipes when they involve those. Do you think it could be done in a blender, if you replace the brazil nuts part with ground almonds?
Hi Danelle, Funny you ask actually as my food processor is actually broken and I made this without it – but thought I’d just write the method for food processor since it’s easier. Now it was a bit of hard work without a food processor, but it CAN be done!! I crushed my nuts with a mortar and pestle – but you could use ground almonds and that would save time. Then I used my stick blender and blended it in small amounts so it was fine enough. I think I probably could have blended it slightly more as I did get the odd long beetroot bit, but overall I think I did a pretty good job considering!