Gluten-free, vegan and nut-free wholesome yet decadent chocolate cake with warming spices, orange and beets.
Special thank you to Amore di Mona for sponsoring this post.
With the weather turning cold I’ve been feeling really inspired to make lots of new recipes and have written a long list of everything that I would love to create. I do it every year, but hardly find time to get through them all so some will make it to the next year some will stay on my ever-expanding lists maybe making it into a cookbook one day.
Today I have this lovely Chocolate Beet Layer Cake recipe to share with you. I think it’s the perfect Autumnal recipe that I hope you will love.
I’ve made the recipe as wholesome as possible and have used some lovely warming spices and orange that works really well with beetroot and chocolate. It’s a nut-free recipe and I’ve used some ground sunflower seeds in my gluten-free mix which adds more lightness, moisture and extra flavor. Now if you can tolerate nuts then ground walnuts would work really well here too.
I’ve roasted my beets to make the puree, you could also boil or steam them which is usually faster if you first cut them into quarters. I fancied some roast sweet potatoes for dinner and so I’ve roasted whole sweet potatoes and the beets altogether to save time and energy. I also had some puree leftover and made some lovely walnut beetroot dip.
I still found some gorgeous rosemary sprigs in bloom and borage flowers which together with few blackberries made a lovely topping. Very simple yet so feminine and pretty. And then I’ve realized I needed something burgundy since it’s a beetroot cake so I’ve added a pansy too :) Just that one flower has created a very different more Autumnal mood I think. Enjoy the recipe.
Chocolate Beet Layer Cake (vegan & gluten-free)
Gluten-free, vegan and nut-free wholesome yet decadent chocolate cake with warming spices, orange and beets.
Ingredients
Layer cake:
- cup brown rice flour (95 grams)
- 1/4 cup buckwheat flour (35 grams)
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, ground into flour consistency (70 grams)
- 1/4 cup tapioca flour (30 grams)
- 1/4 cup cacao powder (30 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- pinch sea salt
- 3/4 cup rapadura sugar (100 grams)
- 1 orange, zest
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed + 6 tablespoons water
- 1 cup beet puree (240 ml)
- 1/4 cup olive oil (80 ml)
- 1/3 cup orange juice (80 ml) + more as needed
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate ganache: make the night before
- 7-ounce dark vegan chocolate (200 grams)
- 1 cup oat cream (240 ml)
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (180 °C)
- Grease and line the base and dust the sides of two 6" round cake baking tins.
- Mix 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed with 6 tablespoons water and set aside to thicken.
- In a large bowl whisk together brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, ground sunflower seeds, tapioca flour, cacao powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, salt and sugar. Add the zest of 1 orange and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together flax eggs, beet puree, olive oil, orange juice, apple cider vinegar and vanilla.
- Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until well combined. You should have thicker muffin consistency. Add more orange juice if needed.
- Spoon the mixture evenly into your prepared tins and level out the surface.
- Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean, it might still be little sticky.
- Remove from the oven once ready and leave to cool down for 20 min before removing from the tins.
- Roughly chop the chocolate for the chocolate ganache and place into a medium bowl. Place the oat cream and maple syrup into a small pot and gently heat until boiling point. Pour over the chopped chocolate and stir until completely melted and smooth. Leave to cool down before placing into a fridge to set overnight into a spreadable consistency.
- Once the cakes are completely cool, you can assemble the cake. Place the bottom layer onto a cake stand and using spatula spread with some chocolate ganache. Top with the second cake layer and frost the sides and top of the cake.
- Decorate your cake to your liking with fresh seasonal fruit and flowers.
Notes
To make beet puree you can either roast, boil or steam 2 medium beets until soft and then blend into a smooth puree.
You can replace oat cream with another vegan cream.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
8Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving:Calories: 540Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 10mgSodium: 802mgCarbohydrates: 72gFiber: 6gSugar: 30gProtein: 10g
I’m going to bake this today. I shopped at two different stores for 6 inch baking pans and can not find them near where I live. Any suggestions on baking times? I believe I’m going to use one 9 inch cake pan.
Hi Kathleen, if you’re using 9″ tin the baking time should be more less the same, it won’t be very high cake. Check after 40 minutes. Hope the recipe works well for you :)
Hello, Can I replace the buckwheat flour for something else? It’s hard to find where I live :(
Hi Bianca, yes, of course, you can. Just use another gluten-free flour – teff, quinoa, amaranth, sorghum or the one that you would normally use.
If I’m not gluten free can I replace with all purpose flour?
Hi Joanne, yes, you can. Replace the brown rice, buckwheat and tapioca flours with all-purpose flour. You can replace the sunflower seeds with ground walnuts or almonds if you prefer too. You might have to adjust the orange juice. Hope you like it :)
I am so happy to have found your site! The recipes and photos all look amazing. I tried this beet chocolate cake recipe and was so pleased with the result. I absolutely love chocolate cake and it’s one dessert I could not seem to find a good gf recipe for that wasn’t totally starch. I greatly appreciate the combination of mostly nutritious ingredients that come together so well in your desserts. Although I used the sugar you listed in the above recipe, how do you think coconut sugar would be in it, and in some of your other cake recipes?
Hi Nancy, thank you so much for your lovely comment. I’m so happy you loved this recipe! Yes, please do use coconut sugar if you prefer. I tend to use rapadura sugar in the recipes that I create for Mona because they’re allergy-friendly recipes free of nuts and coconut. But I also use coconut sugar in many of the other baked cakes, they are very similar.
Is there another item I can replace the rice flour with?
Hi Julie, yes, you can replace with sorghum flour, teff flour or even oat flour. They will all work here. Alternatively shop bought gluten-free mix.
hi hana, i love this recipe! i have baked many a vegan cake before but never a GF (beet) one and im excited to try it out!
i was just wondering if the different flours were required or if i could just use one e.g. tapioca or another GF flour that i can find? is there any benefit to using several flours as opposed to just one?
also, you use rapadura sugar — is it possible to use caster/light brown sugar instead? im trying to keep ingredients to things i already have :)
thank you!