Cake Ingredients

700g beetroots, scrubbed & boiled
200g dark chocolate, melted, plus extra shaved to serve
3 eggs, separated
3cm piece of ginger, finely grated
2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup olive oil
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange
1 cup plain flour
100g polenta
2 tbs cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Icing Ingredients

250g butter, melted
1 ¼ cup icing sugar
175g dark chocolate, melted

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 22cm x 10cm loaf pan with baking paper.
2. Place the cooked beetroot into a food processor and whiz until smooth. Transfer to large bowl and allow to cool.
3. Add the chocolate, egg yolks, ginger, honey, oil, vanilla seeds and orange zest and juice to the cooled beetroot and whisk to combine. Fold in the flour, polenta, cocoa, baking powder, allspice and cinnamon.
4. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form, then fold into beetroot mixture until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
5. For the icing, using a hand mixer, beat butter until pale. Sift in icing sugar and beat for 1 minute or until combined. Add chocolate and beat for 2 minutes or until glossy.
6. Using a palette knife, spread icing over the cake. Sprinkle over extra shaved chocolate to serve.