On my quest to do more gluten free baking and I’m excited as this is my first recipe where I’m using coconut sugar. Coconut sugar does retain some of it’s nutrients and is lower on the GI index than regular table sugar (I’d love to see more testing done on it however.) The taste to me was a bit like caramel, and I liked it. Not that I’ll ever call sugar or a cake healthy – but I like to be able to enjoy a treat like this and feel good after I finish. The downside on the bag of sugar was the price.
The cake itself came out luscious which we topped off with some whipped cream. It’s rich, full of chocolate and dark chocolate chips, deep, rich and damn delicious. You can’t really taste the beets in the cake – so they’re just giving more depth, some nutrients and keeping it moist. The looks I got when I said after the pieces were half eaten… “There’s three beets in this…” I burst out laughing.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
3 large eggs
3 medium sized beets
1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup grapeseed oil
Bring a pot of water to boil, add the beets and boil for about 30 minutes until the beets are fully cooked and soft when poked with a fork. Drain and allow to cool.
Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large mixing bowl mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and sugar.
Take the beets and slice them, place them into a blender along with the almond milk. Blend until smooth. Transfer to a medium sized mixing bowl and combine along with the vanilla, eggs, and grapeseed oil. Whisk until fully blended.
Carefully transfer the wet mixture to the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix well until fully combined.
Line a 9×9 square baking pan (8-9″ round works as well) with parchment and pour the batter into the pan. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick poked in the middle of the cake is clean. Remove from oven, allow to sit in the pan for 10-15 minutes then using the parchment remove from the pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack.
Makes 9 large sized pieces. Enjoy!