Healthy pregnancy diet sweet treat!
A chocolate treat to sweeten your pregnancy diet! This recipe uses beetroot to include pregnancy nutrition essential’s vitamin E, omega 3 and folic acid!
Whilst chocolate cake might not be high on our list of ‘go to’ foods for optimum pregnancy nutrition, from time to time everyone deserves a treat – and we’ve found a recipe that is significantly healthier than your average chocolate cake… With ground almonds instead of flour it has extra fibre and Vitamin E; butter has been replaced by healthy olive oil (extra Omega 3) whilst the addition of beetroot not only makes it deliciously moist and adds the rich colour, they are also a good source of folic acid. Whilst you’ll be tempted to go for an extra slice, you would have to eat quite a lot of the cake to get your RDA of folic acid from the beetroot – but it’s good to know that this is a treat that (sort of) contributes to your healthy pregnancy diet!
Ingredients
85g dark chocolate
3 medium eggs
300g brown sugar
200 ml olive oil
300g cooked beetroots
1tbsp vanilla essence)
30g cocoa powder
200g ground almonds
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
Cream cheese icing
200g Cream Cheese
1 cup icing sugar
Juice of half an orange
Method
- To cook the beetroots, wash thoroughly and place in a pot full of cold water. Bring pot to the boil and cook the beets until soft (approx. 30 minutes though this depends on their size). When cooked, run the beets under cold water in the sink and rub off the skins. Mash the beetroots – you could blend if you prefer but it’s nice to leave a few chunks.
- Place the chopped chocolate in a bowl, cover with cling film and microwave on low for approximately 1 minute until chocolate has just melted. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and oil.
- Slowly add the cooked beet puree, the melted chocolate and vanilla into the egg mixture and mix well. Sift together the ground almonds, baking powder and cocoa and add to the mixture.
- Fold just until everything is combined without over mixing. Spread a teaspoon of oil over the surface of a 10-inch cake pan. Sprinkle with flour and tap out the excess. We used mini loaf tins for novelty value! Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in an oven pre-heated to 180C for approx. 50 minutes.
- Test by inserting a skewer into the middle of the cake – if it comes out clean the cake is ready. Remove from oven and leave to cool in the pan. Mix the icing ingredients together until smooth and spread over the cake
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