Gluten free and vegan chocolate beet cake is topped with a rich yet healthy chocolate frosting made from avocadoes. A delicious, healthier dessert.Â
It seems like a chocolate kind of day.
Doesn’t it? Is it just because it’s Monday? Is it because it’s getting close to Halloween and everywhere I go it’s candy, candy, and more candy?
Who knows. Either way, I have a healthier vegan chocolate beet cake recipe for you with my sneaky chocolate avocado frosting on top. It’s soooo good, and the frosting even fooled my seven year old, who can usually spot secretly healthy treats a mile away.
This is very similar to my easy vegan and gluten free chocolate cake recipe, but with the added benefit of some beet puree in the batter.
You can’t taste or see the beets, and they add a little more fiber and some antioxidants to a very decadent dessert.
Tips for making this vegan chocolate beet cake:
- 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. But since I’m not a huge beet fan, I like to hide beets in desserts when I can! That way I can still get some of the benefits.
I did use a gluten free flour blend in this recipe (Enjoy Life Foods Gluten Free Flour, 123 Gluten Free Flour, or Living NOW Foods Gluten Free All-Purpose Flour would all work). You can also make this chocolate beet cake with regular flour if you don’t need it to be gluten free.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
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. 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 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.
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.
If you just want to skip the cake and enjoy the topping, try this chocolate avocado pudding recipe.
Are you a fan of hiding vegetables and fruits in your desserts?
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