We enjoyed this one at the 2015 Harvest Festival.

Ingredients

50 g cocoa powder
180g plain flour
1.25 teaspoons baking powder
250g castor sugar
300g fresh cooked beetroot (cook whole with skin on and then remove skin)
3 eggs
200 ml corn oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Prepare a 7” cake tin – line the bottom with greaseproof paper and tie 2 layers of newspaper round the outside.

Sift cocoa, flour and baking powder together. Stir in the sugar and leave on one side.

Puree or liquidise the beetroot, put in a clean bowl and then stir in the eggs, corn oil and vanilla.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and stir in the beetroot mixture. Mix gently and then pour into the tin.

Bake at Gas Mark 4 / 160 degrees C for approx 40 minutes.

It will be done when a skewer comes out clean and surface is cracked. Dust with icing sugar. If you like, split it open and fill with a chocolate icing.

Chocolate icing – mix together 100 g icing sugar, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 30 g margarine and 1.5 tablespoons of hot milk. Beat well until smooth. Use to ice a cake or fill the middle.