Chocolate & Beetroot Cupcakes

I thought it would be a bit of a poor effort if I didn't manage to bake something this weekend using chocolate as it is National Chocolate Week. So I'm sneaking this recipe in just as it comes to a close.  My first thought was to find a chocolate recipe using chilli for this month's We Should Cocoa challenge.  While I know there are loads of ideas out there for using these two ingredients I still have bad memories of a Chocolate Chilli Cake I made a few years ago - it made me feel a little bleugh at the time, hence the reluctance to revisit that combination.  I will keep thinking about it though Choclette I promise.


I found this recipe on Baking Mad - I did a search of chocolate cupcake recipes and it threw up this one amongst others.  I've seen several cakes using beetroot as an ingredient on various blogs but hadn't tried using it myself. The recipe also calls these 'low calorie' which I thought wouldn't be a bad thing. However I actually didn't use the specified half spoon sugar so I've probably ruined that idea. I loved the gorgeous colour of the batter - before I added the cocoa is was a proper Pepto Bismol pink!  I also substituted self raising for plain flour as I just ran out of baking powder this morning.  


All in all they were really light cupcake although I felt the cocoa was drowned out by the beetroot. This did mean however that they went well with the rich topping.


The Recipe


3 eggs
150g caster sugar
200g grated beetroot
1/2 tspn vanilla extract
180g self raising flour
180g ground almonds
2 tbspns cocoa powder
pinch of salt
284ml buttermilk


Icing
100g plain chocolate (70% cocoa)
2 tspn fromage frais


1.  Preheat the oven to 180c, gas mark 4.  Line a muffin tray with paper cases (makes 24 in total).
2.  Mix together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.  Beat in the beetroot and vanilla extract.  Add the other dry ingredients and mix well.  Finally add the buttermilk and mix again until well combined.
3.  Divide between the paper cases and bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
4.  Make the icing by melting the chocolate in a microwave.  Lave to cool. Then add the fromage frais and mix well.  Add some milk if you need to loosen the consistency to make it more spreadable.