Turn that extra beetroot into a luxury cake for morning coffee, afternoon tea or a summer picnic.
(Although there was intent for a photograph, due to friends popping in just as cake iced, only dirty plates and forks left!)
Beetroot, Juniper and Orange Cake
Tin size: 21cm round or 22cm/32cm oblong – both reasonably deep ( 10cm ish)
400g of grated raw beetroot
4 large eggs
200g golden caster sugar
150ml sunflower oil
1 tbs golden syrup
250g self raising flour
10 juniper berries, crushed using a pestle and mortar
Zest of 1 orange
Icing: Mascarpone with orange zest mixed in (as much or as little as you fancy!)
- Preheat oven to 180C / 350F / Gas 4.
- Grease and line bottom of selected baking tin.
- Beat sugar, juniper and eggs together until creamy (either by hand or in food processor).
- Slowly whisk in oil, and then golden syrup.
- Add orange zest and flour, fold in.
- Add beetroot and fold in too.
- Pour into prepared tin and place in oven for 50 – 60 minutes (cooked when light and springy to touch and skewer comes out clean).
- When cool, remove cake from tin if baked in round tin.
- When cold ice. If round cake cut in half and fill middle. If oblong just ice top.
You can add some chopped hazelnuts to the cake mixture, fold in around 75g with the flour.
If you want to be really adventurous, fill the round cake with Nutella and mix mascarpone with Nutella to ice the top of both the round and oblong cake.