cake

chocolate cake, with beets.
Adapted from Nigel Slater, whose cakes invariably involve the whipping and folding of egg whites.

I made this for supper with dear M. the other night to follow herbed shrimp in beurre brun with chive polenta and a daikon and red radish salad. It's a cake with a high rise and nice crumb. The beets are almost invisible to the taste and give it on-the-verge-of-sinking moistness and a blood red hue that so becomes chocolate cake. I like the addition of crème fraîche as a relative to the sour cream so close to beetroot's Slavic heart (and mine).

An Extremely Moist Chocolate Beetroot Cake with Crème Fraîche and Poppy Seeds
Serves 8

3-4 medium beets
200 grams fine, dark chocolate
4 Tablespoons hot espresso
3/4 cup butter
1 cup flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 Tablespoons good quality cocoa powder
5 eggs
1 cup sugar
crème fraîche and poppy seeds, to serve

Lightly butter a 20cm springform cake tin and line the base with a disk of parchment paper. Set the oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C.

Peel and cut the beets into quarters and cook in boiling water until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water, then blitz to a rough purée.

Melt the chocolate, snapped into small pieces, in a small bowl resting over a pot of boiling water. When it looks almost melted, pour the espresso over it and stir once. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the melted chocolate. Dip the butter down under the surface of the chocolate with a spoon and leave to soften.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a large mixing bowl. Stir the yolks together.

Now, working quickly but gently, remove the bowl of chocolate from the heat and stir in the egg yolks. Do this quickly, mixing firmly and evenly so the eggs blend into the mixture. Fold in the beetroot. Whip the egg whites until stiff, then fold in the sugar. Firmly but tenderly fold the beaten egg whites and sugar into the chocolate mixture. A large metal spoon is what you want here; work in a deep figure-8 movement, but take care not to over-mix. Lastly, fold in the flour mixture.

Transfer quickly to the prepared cake tin and slide the tin into the oven. Bake 50 minutes. The edge of the cake will feel spongy and the middle should still wobble slightly when gently shaken. Leave it to cool (it will sink a bit in the centre), loosening it around the edges with a palette knife after half an hour or so. It isn't a good idea to remove the cake from its tin until it's completely cold.

Serve in thick points, with crème fraîche and poppy seeds. Roasted Rhubarbe is quite great with it too.

. . .