Vegan Gluten-Free Beetroot Chocolate Cake

YAY, it’s free from gluten, eggs, and dairy! Contains almonds and soy, but easy substitution suggestions are in the post.

I call this my “Why Not, it’s Thursday” cake, lol! Mainly because I had so much roasted beets leftover and decided to make a chocolate cake. I know, beets in cake?? Seriously? But with all my recent experience baking without gluten, eggs and dairy has definitely made me a believer that anything’s possible. The beet puree in this recipe makes the cake incredibly moist and the chocolate richer. You don’t taste the beets at all. The one I made here is frosted with decadent vegan buttercream. I have an option for ganache frosting too further down below. It’s perfect for a birthday or any other special occasion! Or any Thursday of the year, lol! 😉

How to bake a cake with beets:

I take a cup of roasted whole beets and puree it in the blender. Sometimes I add a couple of tablespoons of water to the blender to help it along. If I have a lot, I measure and divide it up, then freeze by the cup. This way, if I need to make this cake for one of my chocolate loving sisters or planning a whole family playdate, I just defrost a container of the beet puree in the fridge a night or two before and it’ll be ready for me to use.

Grease three small 6″ round cake pans and line with parchment paper. I use shortening to grease the pans, but you can use vegetable or coconut oil too.

Dry Mixture:
In a large bowl, add the flours, the xanthan gum, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Use a whisk and mix briefly.

Almond flour notes:
When the kids passed their almond food challenge, it was a game changer for us as a family. I do like combining it a lot with my breads and bakery recipes. Since the kids are still hella allergic to peanuts and all the other tree nuts, we have to use ‘clean’ almonds. This means almond flour produced in an almond-only facility. Barney Almond Flour has been my go to since we introduced almonds into my kitchen. You can also use coconut flour or just increase the all-purpose gluten-free flour to 2 cups or 280grams.

Wet Mixture:
In a medium sized bowl (or large measuring cup), combine a tablespoon flaxseed meal and three tablespoons of water. (I like to minimize dishes, always.) Let this sit for at least 5 minutes. Then add in the beet puree, dairy-free milk, oil and vanilla. Whisk to combine.

Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with the dry mixture. Whisk rigorously until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. The batter will be thick, but you should still be able to stir it. Add a tablespoon or two of dairy-free milk if it’s too thick.

Divide the batter evenly between all three pans. I prefer to use the scale to do this so it’s perfectly even and each time it’s about 10 to 11 ounces each. Bake at 350º in the middle rack for about 30 minutes. I rotate the pans halfway through to ensure even baking. Test with a toothpick, and if necessary, bake another 5-10 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans on a rack for 5 minutes. Then take them out to finish cooling. I find that with gluten-free cakes, if you leave it to cool fully in the pans, the bottom of each cake layers get kind of goopy.

The Frosting:
The few times I’ve made this cake in the past, I’ve always topped it with a ganache frosting. My son, does not like ganache and he would just eat around it. I thought I definitely preferred the liquidy texture of ganache with this cake and reluctantly made this one with my regular chocolate buttercream recipe. I have to admit, it was just as amazing! But I’ll let you decide—here are some pics from the last time I made it with ganache frosting. I’ve included the ganache option in the recipe below. I’d love to hear which one you tried!

For the buttercream, it’s hard to find a good nut-free vegan butter, but we like Earth Balance Vegan Butter Sticks. Use an electric mixer to make the frosting. Beat on low, then increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy. Frost each cake layer and then the sides. I had planned on doing a ‘naked’ cake look, where the cake layers are more exposed on the sides, but honestly I was racing against the clock since I had to pick the kids up from school.

I meeeean, really didn’t matter how the frosting landed on it because this cake was SO good. It was a great mid-week treat and we felt zero guilt since we knew there was a whole cup of beets in it!