This gluten free and vegan chocolate beet cake is topped with a rich, delicious chocolate frosting made from avocados. You won’t believe how moist this cake is!
When you have picky eaters, sometimes you have to resort to hiding vegetables in recipes, even in dessert recipes. I thought this chocolate cake would be a good opportunity to hide some better for you ingredients inside. like beets and avocados.
This chocolate beet cake is soooo good, and the frosting even fooled my older son, who can usually spot healthier treats a mile away.
This is very similar to my easy vegan and gluten free chocolate cake recipe, but with some beet puree in the batter, and a creamy avocado frosting on top.
If you just want to skip the cake and enjoy the topping, try this chocolate avocado pudding recipe.
Ingredient Notes
- Beet Puree – I just boil a beet or two and then blend in the food processor to make beet puree, but if you wanted to save time you could find baby food beets and use those instead. If you’re out of beets, or hate beets, or are afraid of your hands turning purple, you could easily use another fruit puree. Prune puree would work, as would unsweetened applesauce.
- Avocado – Sometimes people wonder about using avocado in desserts. It really does taste good, but you have to use a perfectly ripe avocado. You can’t use one that’s starting to head south, because it will just taste like an overripe avocado, and that’s no good. A perfectly ripe one will not have any kind of taste in the frosting, it will just be super rich and creamy.
- Gluten Free Flour – I did use a gluten free flour blend in this recipe (123 Gluten Free Flour or Namaste Perfect Flour Blend would work). You can also make this cake with regular flour if you don’t need it to be gluten free.
Storage
Store this cake in the refrigerator. It should stay fresh for two days. The frosting will start to taste a little more like avocados the longer it sits, so you do want to eat this sooner rather than later.
Serving Suggestions
Serve this cake with:
- Strawberries or raspberries
- Whipped coconut cream
- Homemade dairy free chocolate chip ice cream
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Recipe
Chocolate Beet Cake with Chocolate Avocado Frosting.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups gluten free flour blend
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup organic cane sugar you can sub coconut sugar for all or part of this
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup organic canola oil or coconut oil
- ½ cup beets pureed
- ¾ cup water
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
For the Frosting:
- 2 avocados
- 10 Tablespoons maple syrup
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the gluten free flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Whisk together.
- Add the organic canola oil, beet puree, water, and apple cider vinegar. Mix batter by hand.
- Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for about 25 minutes, then run a knife around the edges of the cake and invert the pan to remove the cake.
- Allow cake to cool completely before frosting.
- To make the frosting, combine the avocados, maple syrup, and cocoa powder in the food processor. Process until very smooth. Taste it, and add more maple syrup if needed.
- Frost the cooled cake and then store the frosted cake in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Cake adapted from this recipe.
kingbabymama
What!? avocado frosting!? that sounds awesome! will definitely try this. Can I use applesauce instead of beet, or any other sub?
Kelly Roenicke
Yes, applesauce will work well!
Megan
Can this recipe be used for cupcakes?
Ashley
Just wondering if this cake can be made in advance? Like the day before?
Kelly Roenicke
The cake can be made a day ahead of time, but the frosting should be made right before serving for best flavor.
Ashley
I love the sound of this recipe as a healthier alternative for my sons first birthday smash cake, however I’m wondering if the avocado frosting can be made ahead of time, if so how far ahead and how should it be stored? Since its chocolate I’m guessing the avocado turning brown wont be noticed?
Julie
Excellent dessert! Second time I’ve made it for company in two weeks!!!!
HD
Hi Kelly
I forgot to mention the avocado and chocolate Ganache was epic. Why did I never think to use avocado before. I used 70% chocolate. Melted it in a double boiler and added the maple syrup to taste and melted chocplate to the creamed avocado. HEAVEN.
HD
HD
Hi Kelly…
Thanks for this recipe…I followed it but was not really able to “pour” the batter.
I had to alter the recipe (the total water I added was 1 1/2 cups and 4 eggs. It came out well.
I have a picture I can send you of my end product and perhaps you can share how my original mix was too dry?
Kelly Roenicke
What type of flour did you use?
Paula S
Wow, I just made this for my birthday Cake! It was so delicious! Fudgey and chocolatey, it far exceeded my expectations. Instead of the avocado chocolate frosting I made a frosting with cream cheese, whipping cream and honey. My whole family enjoyed it!
Katie
Delicious recipe!
Shalini
i baked this with regular flour today! it’s awesome!!! thank you :)
Sharon
Do you use GF plain Flour or Self Raising? Going to attempt to make it for work. I work with some vegan and gf people who always miss out thought this might be nice
Kelly Roenicke
I have used Enjoy Life GF Flour, Now Foods GF flour, and my own recipe that you can find on my site. My recipe is gum free if that is helpful!
Natalie
This looks perfect for someone I know, except for the sugar. Is there a way of substituting it for something natural and doesn’t involve coconut? Such as dates, agave, maple syrup etc please?
Kelly Roenicke
I haven’t tried that, so I am not sure. If you try it, let me know!
Sabrina Cohen
Hello, love the recipe. can I use regular flour? What do you think? Thanks!
Veronica
Hi! Could I use oat flour instead of the gluten free flour blend?
Kelly Roenicke
You can try that, but the cake may be denser.
Lisa
Hi! I made this for my sons birthday back in May and it was a hit! My daughter asked me to make it for her daughters second birthday 😊. That just came out of the oven but I also want to make some cupcakes. Should I do anything different? Wondering if they’ll ride enough?
Thanks
Alexis
what is the degrees in celcius please? I am not much of a baker but have a child’s birthday cake to make free of dairy as it inflames her eczema. I also like the idea of hiding avocado!
Kelly Roenicke
Here is a converter: https://www.unitconverters.net/temperature/fahrenheit-to-celsius.htm It looks like 176 degrees? Does that sound right?
Jim
OK, I have made one beet cake that was full of sugar, but everyone loved it. I am going to try this one now. Looks and sounds amazing.
Avi
I just put this in the oven, but I wonder if the batter is suppose be very thick – mine is.
Kelly Roenicke
The batter is a thick batter, but you can always add more liquid if it seems too dry.
Quenby
JUST finished making this cake…..SOOOOOO GOOOOD!!! I’m not vegan but when we found out my mom had Parkinsons we started trying to eat better in every way…..She has a hard time tasting things these days as well. I do not so I tried it first just to be sure..ITS NOW OUR NEW FAVORITE DESSERT. Thank you so much for this recipe and the avacado icing is so amazingly creamy is insane. Thank you a million times from the bottoms of our hearts!
Shelby
WHY can’t I print your recipes from my iPad? Recipes appear blacked out! Does it matter that you have ads on your recipes? We have Apple equipment and HP printers.