Beetroot Red Velvet Cake

📝 Ingredients

• 250 g cooked beetroot (2 beetroots, about 125 g each)
• 3 eggs
• 120 g caster sugar
• 40 g rapeseed oil (about 3 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 180 g plain wheat flour
• 15 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 sachet baking powder (11 g)
• 1 pinch of salt
• 150 g light cream cheese (about 11% fat)
• 300 g plain skyr, 0% fat
• 40 g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

🍴 Utensils

• 22 cm round tin
• Blender
• Electric hand mixer
• Large mixing bowl
• Silicone spatula
• Bread knife

📖 Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line the base and sides of a 22 cm round tin with baking paper. Cut the beetroot into pieces and blend with the lemon juice and oil for 1 to 2 min until you have a perfectly smooth purée, with no lumps at all.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer for 5 min on medium-high speed, until the mixture is pale, foamy and doubled in volume. This foam is what gives the cake its lightness.
3. Add the beetroot purée and mix with the mixer on low speed, just until you have an even pink cream, about twenty seconds. Don't beat any longer or you'll knock the air out.
4. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt over the top in two batches. Fold in with a rubber spatula, lifting the mixture from the bottom up, without whisking, until no trace of flour remains: if overworked, the batter would collapse.
5. Pour the batter into the tin, smooth the top and bake for 35 to 40 min, without opening the oven for the first 20 minutes. The cake is done when a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool for 10 min in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely, about 1 hour. On a still-warm cake, the cream would melt and run down the sides.
7. Make the cream: whisk the cream cheese on its own for 30 seconds to soften it, then add the skyr, the sifted icing sugar and the vanilla. Whisk just until the cream is smooth and holds on the spoon, then keep it in the fridge.
8. Level the domed top of the cake with the bread knife, keeping the offcuts. Then cut the cake horizontally into two discs, turning it as you go and keeping the blade perfectly level.
9. Spread half the cream over the bottom disc, place the second disc on top and cover with the rest of the cream. Crumble the cake offcuts over the top and chill for 1 hour before slicing: the cream firms up and the slices hold their shape.