A slice of heaven

This is a truly dense but light chocolate cake which I tasted 11 years ago in a café in Bowral, near Sydney. The cake was fabulous and I just had to ask for the recipe. The waitress didn't have the recipe, but said she knew the cake was made with Belgian cocoa and.... beetroot!

So this is what I came up with after a few attempts.

3 eggs
230 gr sugar (fine brown is better)
180 mls vegetable oil
230 gr flour
pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup dutch process unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup water
250 gr grated cooked beetroot

Oven preheated to 180° C
First of all, buy a packet of cooked beetroot from the supermarket. You will use half and can keep the rest in the freezer for when you get the urge to make this cake.
Grate the beetrot on a medium sized grater. I use the food processor and NOT the finest grating blade. Hole are about 4 mm wide.
Whip up the eggs with the sugar until nice and pale, add the oil and keep emulsifying. Sift flour, cocoa, raising agents and add to the mixer, mixing until just incorporated and adding the water to ease the process.
Mix in grated beetroot by hand.
You will need a 24 cm cake tin, or thereabouts. Pour into the buttered and floured tin, pop into the oven and give it 40 - 45 minutes.

This cake is lovely and moist, so it really doesn't need a filling or icing, but if you really must you can slice in half and add a good slathering of chocolate hazelnut paste (I like Rivoire from Florence, an artisanal nutella made with ONLY hazelnuts and cocoa) or a plain chocolate ganache.

Obviously, a good dollop of whipped cream wouldn't go wasted on this either.

I made this last weekend for James, I didn't have the recipe with me so I sort of improvised from what I remembered. Well, he said it was PERFECT and asked for the recipe for his hotel!  I couldn't have asked for more....