Beetroot chocolate cupcakes are rich, moist and decadent. I’ve added less sugar and fat, but they’re still a wonderful treat.
This recipe makes deliciously moist, moreish cupcakes. Adding beetroot, like most vegetables, makes them last ages without drying out and these ones lasted for four days and still never got crumbly. The beetroot can’t be tasted but adds a nice richness to the chocolate. I iced these ones with chocolate cardamom icing (see below for recipe) and added chocolate swirls, candied beetroot and edible flowers.
Get the recipe for Beetroot Chocolate Cupcakes with Cardamom Icing
- 300g (10 oz) cooked beetroot (vacuum packed without vinegar is easiest)
- 125g ( ½ cup) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
- 100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
- 3 large free-range eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g (2 cups) plain flour
- 75g (2/3 cup) cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 80g ( ⅓ cup) butter
- 130g (1 cup) icing sugar
- 1 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 5 cardamom pods, seeds ground in a pestle and mortar
- Preheat the oven to 170C/340F. Line muffin cups.
- Puree the drained beetroot in a food processor or with a hand held stick blender until smooth.
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in the eggs, one at a time. Add the beetroot and vanilla and mix well.
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the beetroot mixture, in thirds, and mix well.
- Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake for approximately 25 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Beat together the butter and icing sugar until fluffy. Add in the milk, cocoa powder and ground cardamom seeds. Blend well.
To make the crystallised edible flowers, simply brush the flowers all over with beaten egg white, then thoroughly dredge with superfine caster sugar and allow to dry overnight on a wire rack. Be sure to get each petal well covered.
sarah hill wheeler (@hill_wheeler)
I made these today and they turned out very nice indeed, couldn’t really taste the beetroot but they definitely added a richness to the cakes. I cut down on the sugar a bit and upped the vanilla and cocoa and it all worked fine. I iced four (not big on icing) and they were very nice indeed, but I am going to try Lisa’s buttercream suggestion as trying to cut right back on the sugar (in my version I added cream cheese and added less icing sugar, but am going to try without!).
Lisa
Wow, those look great. I think I will finally try baking with beets (I have recently tried making pumpkin recipes with cooked carrots and that went well). Looks like I will definitely cut down on the sugar and use my go-to buttercream (just butter and agave nectar and a tsp alcohol) with the cardamom. Keep up your interesting blog!
Kate Veggie Desserts
That icing sounds lovely! Let me know how your further adventures in vegetable desserts goes. 🙂
Food to Fitness
These look delicious. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Kate Veggie Desserts
Thanks!
Kate Veggie Desserts
Hi Emma, thanks for letting me know how they turned out! This is one recipe where I’ve left all the naughties in. Often I reduce the fat and sugar quite a bit. You could definitely make those changes. Also, you could increase the vanilla by 1/2 a teaspoon as it can compensate for using less sugar, too. 🙂
Emma
Hi! I used this recipe for a bake sale at work and they were really popular – the only thing I wasn’t too sure on was the amount of sugar…? 250g seems so much and they were quite sweet, not one for messing around with recipes but what are your thoughts on if I upped the coco powder and decreased the amount of sugar? Many thanks! Love all your recipes, very inspirational. Emma