Truly Healthy Chocolate Beet Bundt Cake
Don’t laugh, alright?
I know my Bundt looks kind of odd… But it’s not my fault, you see… it’s the pan!
What is it with manufacturers creating Bundt cake pans that give you cakes that resemble giant donuts?
I mean seriously, what are they thinking?
If I wanted a giant donut, I would buy a “giant donut” pan. Not a Bundt cake pan.
Wow, talk about a letdown. I’d been looking sooooo forward to that one. I hadn’t made a Bundt in YEARS and was looking so forward to unmolding this beautiful, deeply ridged, curvy and bumpy cake… and this is what I got.
Pfft.
I don’t know about you, but I like my Bundt cakes to bear beautiful, deep and well defined markings.
My kingdom for one of these babies!
But hey, all is not lost!
While I was visibly disappointed with the way my cake looked, I really can’t say the same about my taste test experience!
Oh goodness did it ever meet my expectations AND THEN SOME!
This cake REALLY takes the cake!
Talk about dense and crazy fudgy. Lord have mercy on me! It really does have the most amazing texture, I swear. Even my daughter said so. In fact, she’s the one who said it first! She said this was my bestest best success at replicating a “real” cake texture so far.
And the flavor is just plain wicked out of this world too!
Now I’m not gonna lie to you, the beets do come shine through. You DO indeed taste them… as in you can’t pretend that they are not there. But they work so very well with the chocolate!
In fact, I think I would’ve been disappointed NOT to taste the beets in that cake.
I deliberately chose to use raw, unpeeled beets to get as much color, taste and moisture as possible, as well as all the precious nutrients that this gorgeous ruby vegetable has to offer.
I think that my decision really paid off.
If like me, you appreciate beets to the max, you are going to fall crazy in love with this cake.
And seriously, let me ask you this. Have you ever before in your life had cake where the frosting was so healthy that you would actually WANT to add more because it was so good for you?
Well, you’re looking at one now!
But I strongly recommend that you taste it instead of just looking at it because frankly, it tastes MUCH better than it looks. 😉
Chocolate Beet Bundt Cake
Ingredients
- 550 g raw beets, peel on, grated
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- ¾ cup date paste, 150g
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup egg whites
- Vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 275 g spelt flour, 1¾ cup
- 70 g arrowroot flour, ½ cup
- ¾ cup dark cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
Icing
- 2 scoops vanilla flavored whey protein powder
- 2 scoop plain whey protein powder
- ¼ cup date paste
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ cup yogurt
- 3 tbsp pasteurized egg whites
Garnish
- 2-3 tbsp raw cocoa nibs
Instructions
For the cake
- Preheat your oven to 375F and coat a bundt cake pan with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl combine dry ingredients and whisk until well incorporated. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your food processor, combine wet ingredients and process until smooth.
- Pour into dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until well combined.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool for 5 minutes, return onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
For the icing
- Add date paste, yogurt and egg whites to a mixing bowl and blend with a whisk until smooth and well combined.
- Stir in cocoa powder and again, mix until smooth.
- Stir in whey protein powders and mix until well combined. Let rest for a minute then stir again until smooth.
- Place cooled cake in a serving plate and pour icing all over the top, letting it drip on the side.
- Garnish with raw cocoa nibs.
If you’ve tried this recipe, please take a minute to rate the recipe and let me know how things went for you in the comments below. It’s always such a pleasure to hear from you!
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Start with a giant donut… erm sorry, I mean Bundt cake
Pour on a little bit of delicious chocolate frosting…
…or A LOT!
Garnish with cocoa nibs…
Cut yourself a slice…
And prepare to die. Well, almost! Check out that amazing fudgy texture.
Has your heart rate gone up yet?
41 Comments on “Truly Healthy Chocolate Beet Bundt Cake”
Good call on the donut comment. It truly does look like a huge donut made from chocolate and beets. But, it is all about the taste…
Hmmm… when you put it this way, it doesn’t sound bad at all! “Huge donut made from chocolate and beets”. Sure, I’ll go for that! 😀
Think I should rename my post? 😉
I enjoy your blog and the cake looks great but I have to say that I find your use of the word ‘retard’ in your blog post totally inappropriate. It’s an incredibly derogatory term and one that has no place today’s language. See here for more info: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/23/living/ann-coulter-obama-tweet/index.html
I’m really sorry you feel that way, Robyn. I didn’t mean to offend.
Haha – the frosting made it beautiful! I always have little places on the outside of my bundt cakes and I’m just like, “Oh well, nothing a little powdered sugar dust or frosting can’t fix!”. Regardless of the shape I’d be happy to eat this cake any day – sounds wonderful!
Ahah! I don’t do powdered sugar [anymore], but cocoa powder would work gloriously. Doesn’t bring out the markings, though… 😉
Mmmmmmm. I love beets and chocolate together. Totally a winning combination. Thanks for this inspiration:)
Simply exquisite. And the calorie count is so reasonable per serving of this delight! I’m not sure I’ve made enough Bundt cakes to know the standard shape… this one does not seem that far off to me though – and besides, you have the uncanny ability to make everything look beautiful so retarded is definitely not what I would choose to call this gorgeous creation ;-).
Great post will pass the recipe along to the wife for the holidays.
Oh man! That looks incredible! Honestly, I’d go for a giant chocolate donut any day so the first picture looked just fine to be, but then when I scrolled down and saw the pictures with the frosting, and then with a bite… you almost had me drooling! This cake is going to the top of my to-do list for sure. I just have one question. Is there any way to make the frosting if you don’t have protein powder? And, if so, what changes should I make?
Thanks so much, and please keep the baked goods coming. I love them!
Thanks a bunch Ruta! To be honest, I don’t think that the frosting could be made without the protein powder, it would turn into something completely different. And as far as replacing it with something else, I really wouldn’t know what to use…
Sorry for liking my protein powder so much, I use that stuff in everything… soon I’ll be putting some in my coffee! 😉
Wonderful looking cake! Even if it’s not quite the shape you want(and I know what you mean!) it’s still looks great!
Thanks Heidi! Very kind of you to say! 🙂
The cake is in the oven! Well a variation of it, using pureed kidney beans (no beets available here at this time of year) and wheat flour. I’m very dubious about the baking soda and powder levels. A combined total of 3 tablespoons in a heck of a lot! I fear my batter tasted very acidic. Does this bake out? I assume the cake won’t taste like baking soda… So excited for that fudgy texture!
YIIIIIIKES!!! Did I really write tbsp? Oh my, so sorry Christina… this should’ve have been TSP. I don’t think that it will totally ruin your cake though, you should be fine still. I could taste the baking soda big time in the batter but the taste completely cooked out. I’ll go and change the recipe right now. Let me know how your cake came out!!!
Meh didn’t seem to affect it! It was one huge cake though! Super high – I guess my bundt tin is a lot smaller/higher. You’ll see in photos shortly 🙂 Super tasty, not very sweet. So satisfying having this great slice of it for morning tea (as in, mid morning snack), slathered in chocolate icing, in front of my colleagues who are wide mouthed at my eating chocolate cake so early in the day.. pahaha they’ll never know..
Phew… so relieved! I was so worried after reading your last comment! Now I can breathe much better! 😉 Can’t wait to see your pictures, I bet I’ll love your Bundt! Small and high usually results in very nice looking cakes! Are you going to post about it?
And isn’t it super cool to be eating cake for breakfast? ESPECIALLY chocolate! My favorite, for sure! 😀
Well despite the donuty look… It does look very appetizing with that oozing chocolate down the side but you’re right about your bundt pan. It’s a bit of an odd shape!
Thanks Simone! Say, with all the baking that you do, I take it you must own quite a few Bundt pans… is there one that you could recommend for great results and beautiful, well defined markings?
How does it look odd? It looks like all of my bundt cakes. Oh well. I like it! I tried my first beet last weekend. I was awful. But I’m sure this cake is amazing for people who aren’t beet-haters! It’s definitely beautiful. You’ve been posting lots of desserts lately. Woohoo. Fine with me. 🙂
You didn’t like beets? What didn’t you like about them? Have you ever tried them in chocolate cake?
And I guess you have this same cheap pan if your Bundt cakes also look like that. Well, mind you, cheap isn’t really the right choice of word here, I’ve paid a good price for that pan. Yet, the grooves just aren’t deep enough and almost completely disappear from the cake after it’s baked. I bought a second one which I used for my pumpkin bundt, but it’s still not super well defined. Better, but not perfect. Looks like I’ll have to buy a 3rd pan…
As for my posting lots of desserts, I’m just super inspired lately. I’ve got MANY more in store!!! 😀
This looks amazing. I can’t wait to make this. Curious about the beets! Beautiful photography!!
Thanks Deborah! I appreciate that! 🙂
This looks delish! About how many beets would you say you used? Did you use a food processor for the grating?
Thanks a bunch!
I think it was 3 large beets, but I can’t remember exactly… I didn’t need to use a food processor, just my regular stainless steel grater did the trick, but feel free to use your food processor if you want to! And let me know how this works out of you if you end up giving it a try! 🙂
Hi, I’m a seasoned baker, made the beet cake and it stayed overly wet/moist (?raw) inside while the outside was hard and overcooked!! Kept it in the oven 1/2 hour longer than specified, no difference, then trimmed the hard overcooked part and returned to oven, just didn’t seem to be cooking!! The only thing I did differently was use almond flour in place of arrowroot. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to process the beets? I grated the beets then put them in the processor with the other wet ingredients. Disappointed, because lot of prep time with the beets (I peeled them before grating)! Any ideas about what went wrong? Thank you.
Hi Fiorella,
First off, I took the liberty of reposting your comment under the proper post. I hope you don’t mind, it just makes more sense that way!
Secondly, I’m extremely sorry to hear that you’ve been having trouble with the cake! I can only see your one substitution as being the culprit. Almond meal and arrowroot flour are 2 completely different things. They have properties that aren’t even remotely similar. Ever tried thickening a sauce with almond flour? My guess is it wouldn’t work at all… I’m not even sure that it would work as a binding agent, really.
Again, I am real sorry that your cake didn’t turn out. And for the record, if you ever decide to give it another shot, don’t bother peeling the beets. Just give them a good wash, it’ll save you a whole bunch of time! 🙂
About how many cups of beets would you say that is?
Just wondering before I give this one a go whether it would be possible to substitute the spelt flour for coconut flour?? Or would it affect the cake? Thanks!
Oh, it would definitely affect the cake, Carmen. Coconut flour is very different from any other flour out there, plus, you’d be losing the gluten, so the cake would without question behave differently. I’m sure it would still work, but you’d probably have to add some blanched almond flour as well. I haven’t played with these ingredients enough to give you measurements, but you certainly made me want to give it a try now. I think I need to make a paleo version of this baby!
If you do give it a try, Carmen, make sure you let me know how it went! 🙂
Hmmm don’t know if I’m clever enough to make it work myself- think I’ll wait for a paleo version! 😛 Cop out, I know hehe
Hehe! I don’t think you’re gonna have to wait too long, beets will be in season soon! 🙂
Wow im definately making your cake recipe this weekend thanks for creating and sharing your awsome recipe I can tell a good one when I read it !: ) b.t.w. I cant stand anything more than when retarded peons cant keep their lame retarded comments to them selves everyword has a place in our langauge new and old thats what makes english the best langauge people should seriously move to another country before saying that and get a life. Oh yeah your bundt still looks awsome just softer
Haha! Thanks a bunch, Christina! 🙂 I certainly hope your cake turns out looking better than mine (just make sure you use a great Bundt pan, not a retarded one like I did) and you’ll be fine! 😉 I’ve since chucked that stupid pan and bought a brand new one with real deep grooves in it. Works much better. And now you made me want to revisit this recipe big time. I’m so putting it on my list. I need to make this one Paleo friendly!
Anyway, please, do let me know how the cake worked for you if you end up making it. Taste-wise… and look-wise! 😉
Hi! Making this tomorrow 🙂 i have way too many beets from the csa!!! Can you suggest an alternative to date paste please? Would banana work? Thx!
It’s hard to tell without having tested it first… For sure, it would change the flavor, and I’m not convinced that it would work all that well. Raw honey, maybe?
Thanks! I used homemade raisin paste. The cake is delicious though mine was too wet – no bundt pan!
Ha, that’ll work indeed! Glad to hear the cake was to your liking, too! 🙂
Hi can I use an ordinary cake tin, and what size?, thanks and regards from dublin!
I’ve never personally tried it, Ann, but you could give one of the following options a go: 1 (9×13-inch) cake pan; 2 (9-inch) round cake pans; 2 (8-inch) round cake pans; 1 (9-inch) tube pan; 1 (10-inch) springform pan. Of course, baking time would also need to be adjusted depending on the pan you end up using, so keep a close eye on your cake!
Love this appreciation for great content