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!

Vegan Gluten-Free Beetroot Chocolate Cake

Recipe by yayitsfreefromthisCourse: DessertCuisine: Gluten-Free, Allergy-Friendly, Dairy Free, Nut Free

Servings

8

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Total time

1

hour 

10

minutes

Ingredients

• 210g (1 1/2c) gluten-free flour

• 1/2c (30g/1 oz) almond or coconut flour (See Note 1 below for substitutions)

• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum (See Note 2)

• 9 oz (1c) cane sugar

• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt

• 1/2c (1 1/2oz/43g)unsweetened cocoa (do not use dutch-processed)

• 1 flax egg (1 Tbsp flax meal plus 3 Tbsp water )

• 1 c beet puree

• 3/4 c full-fat oat milk

• 1/4c avocado oil

• 2 tsp vanilla
  

• Option 1: Ganache Frosting

• 9 oz semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips/chunks

• 1/2 c dairy-free milk
  

• Option 2: Buttercream Frosting

• 2 oz (half a stick or 1/4c) vegan butter, softened

• 200g powdered sugar

• 30g (6 Tbsp) unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2-3 Tbsp dairy-free milk

Directions

• Heat oven to 350º F.
• Grease and line three 6″ cake pans with parchment paper, set aside.
• In a medium bowl, make the flax egg by mixing the water and flax meal together and let sit for at least 5 minutes.
• In a large bowl, whisk together cocoa, flour, xanthan gum, sugar, baking soda and salt and set aside.
• To the flax egg bowl, add beets, milk, oil and vanilla. Whisk to incorporate.
• Add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture and mix well.
• Split the batter evenly between pans (approx. 1lb, 2oz each)
• Bake for 30 minutes, rotating halfway through.
• To make the ganache:
• Heat the milk on the stove gently. Do not bring to boil.
• Place the chocolate in a bowl.
• Add to the hot milk and stir until completely melted.
• Wait until the ganache has cooled completely before frosting the cakes.
• To make the chocolate buttercream:
• Beat the vegan butter briefly on low.
• Add the sugar and cocoa, then beat on low until incorporated a bit. It’ll be pretty dry at this point.
• Add a tablespoon of dairy-free milk, and beat again on low. Once the frosting starts to form, increase the speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2-3 more minutes.
• Add another tablespoon or two of milk if necessary to get your preferred texture.

Notes

• If allergic to almonds and/or coconut, just use all gluten-free flour and increase it to 280g. Reduce the milk to 1/2 a cup.
• If the all-purpose gluten-free flour already contains xanthan gum, be sure to leave this out.