Chocolate Beetroot Cake
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This fabulous chocolate beetroot cake is ultra-moist, delicious, and easy to make. Blend all the ingredients, pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake!
Published in Feb 2020/updated in Nov 2025
This is an incredible blender cake recipe that I published a few years back. It’s a breeze to whip up, it turns perfectly moist and delicious, and I just had to share it again to encourage you to bake it if you haven’t already!
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First things first, you’ll love this recipe as it’s SUPER EASY to make with this “ALL IN ONE” method. All you have to do is blend all the ingredients in a food processor, and the cake batter will be ready in no time. How cool is that?
Secondly, the healthy, inexpensive cooked beets are the main ingredient in this recipe, bringing fiber, nutrients, and zero fat into your cake! You’ll be amazed by their moisture, lovely ruby color, and, most of all, how they blend perfectly with cocoa powder and dark chocolate.
And don’t worry, the beetroot flavor is so subtle, nearly undetectable, that it’s hard to say this is a beetroot cake with chocolate.
I baked this beetroot and chocolate cake so many times, and the combination of the earthy beets and decadent chocolate is just fantastic.
It’s also low in sugar, and kids love it. But before I say anything else, look at this slice... doesn’t it look super moist and delicious?
List of the ingredients
- Cooked beetroots
- All-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
- Eggs
- Sugar
- Vegetable oil
- Cocoa powder
- Vanilla essence
- Baking powder
- Dark chocolate (optional)
How to blend the cake batter
1. This clever “ALL IN ONE METHOD” uses a food processor, saving you time and mess (no need to grate the beets!). I love this model!
2. Blend the ingredients in a specific order; you can’t simply throw everything into the food processor and blend. You will overmix the batter, activating too much gluten, resulting in a cake with a heavy, bready texture.
How to make chocolate beet cake
(Note: this is simply an explanation; the full recipe is at the bottom of the page)
- Preheat the oven.
- Blend beetroots, egg, sugar, oil, vanilla essence, and cocoa powder.
- Add the dry ingredients to the food processor bowl.
- Pulse just until combined, but do not overmix!
- Pour the batter into a greased cake pan and bake!
- To add a fairly amount of fancy deliciousness, pour the melted dark chocolate over the top! This is an extra step that makes the cake yummy and elegant.
RECIPE NOTES
beetroot chocolate cake Ingredients
Beetroots: For convenience, the recipe uses cooked beetroots sold in both canned and vacuum-sealed packaging. But you’re welcome to boil your fresh beetroots if you wish; they will be perfectly fine and delicious.
Flour + baking powder: You can use all-purpose flour, light spelt flour, or mix all-purpose flour with whole-wheat flour to add more fiber.
Eggs: They give essential structure. Make sure they are at room temperature.
Sugar: The recipe works with brown sugar, caster sugar, and also granulated sugar. As you can see, we don’t use a ton of sugar for this recipe, but we still need sugar for essential flavor and texture.
Oil: Vegetable oil lends moisture and softer crumbs. You can use your favorite vegetable oil, though I confess I’m not a fan of highly refined oils and prefer expeller-pressed rapeseed oil (canola oil in the UK) or olive oil for my cake recipes.
Cocoa powder + dark chocolate: Beets and chocolate are a marriage made in heaven. I recommend using unsweetened cocoa powder and good-quality dark chocolate. I love using a 70% or 85% dark chocolate bar—it makes a big difference in flavor and color, too.
BEETROOTS ARE GOOD FOR YOU!
Beets have been associated with numerous health benefits; they’re low in calories and rich in fiber, which are essential for lowering cholesterol levels and reducing appetite. It’s great to use them in desserts, too!
Pro tips
- Use ingredients at room temperature
- Mix the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until just combined
- Don’t overmix the batter; that would ruin that lovely texture
- Make sure the baking powder is fresh and not expired
- Measure liquid, baking powder, and flour accurately
STorage tips
It keeps well for 3-4 days at room temperature in an airtight container. It’s also freezable, but preferably without chocolate decoration since condensation might alter the appearance and texture of the chocolate.
More cake recipes
For more blender cake recipes, check out my carrot cake and zucchini cake; they are incredible! Plus, you might want to try some of our favorite cakes:
If you make this delicious and easy beetroot and chocolate cake, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or tag a photo #theclevermeal on Instagram. I would love to hear from you!
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Chocolate Beetroot Cake
Ingredients
- 2 (7oz/200 grams) medium beets, cooked
- 2 medium-sized eggs, at room temp
- ½ scant cup (80-90 grams) vegetable oil (I use expeller pressed canola oil)
- 1 ¼ cup (170 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup (100 grams) sugar (I use unrefined cane sugar)
- 3 tablespoon (20 grams) cocoa powder, unsweetened
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 (100 grams) 70% or 85% dark chocolate bar (use less if you wish) (optional, but recommended)
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 360 ℉./180℃.
- Grease or line your cake pan with parchment paper (Mine is a ring pan 8.6 x 4 inch-deep).
- Place all the ingredients, except the flour and baking powder, in a food processor and blend into a smooth consistency.
- Add the flour and baking powder n two steps, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as necessary. Blend only for a few seconds until the flour is just combined with the rest of the ingredients, do not overmix (the pictures above show the main steps in the food processor).
- Scrape the batter into the pan, level the top and bake in the middle shelf of the oven for about 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes check the cake by inserting a thin skewer/cake tester into the centre of the cake. If the cake is fully cooked then the skewer will come out clean, if there is still batter clinging to the skewer then return the cake to the oven for a further 3 minutes and test again.
- When the cake is ready, remove it from the oven and let it cool.
- In the meanwhile melt the dark chocolate in the microwave or into a heatproof bowl placed over a pan of barely simmering water (a bain marie). Allow the chocolate to melt, stirring occasionally. Once melted leave it to set until a bit firm, but still runny.
- Remove your cake from the pan and decorate with the runny dark chocolate sauce. Enjoy it!
Can you put this into a loaf tin instead of a bundt tin. If so how long do you bake it for. Thanks for recipe it looks great.
Hi Chris! I’m glad to see you love my simple cake recipes.. : )
I’ve never baked this beetroot cake in a loaf tin to be honest, not so sure about the baking time and result.
However, baking in a loaf tin usually requires a longer baking time. Sorry if I can’t be more precise! x
My kids seriously loved this cake! So easy to make and pretty healthy. I skipped the chocolate drizzle in favour of tossing in some chocolate chips so it worked well as a school snack.
Thanks for the awesome recipe, I will definitely be making it again 🙂
That’s wonderderful, Robin! I’m so pleased your kids loved it.
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback and for rating the recipe. x
So happy to find a beetroot cake recipe! I just noticed it says to combine all ingredients apart from the flour and baking powder first, but it should also exclude the chocolate bar as that is for the optional topping 🙂 almost chucked the chocolate chips in my batter haha, to be fair I think it would have worked anyway!
Glad to hear you like this recipe, Carmen. Thanks so much for sharing your feedback! : )
Super delicious!!! I used a drained 12 oz jar of home canned beets for this recipe. Last year I canned these beets and they were too soft for my liking. This is a perfect way to use them up. I made a chocolate ganache for topping – excellent!!
I’m so glad you loved this recipe, Sue! : )
Thanks a lot for sharing this great feedback, I appreciate it. xx
How do you make ganache 😊?
Hi Patricia! That’s not a proper ganache but simply some melted dark chocolate (instructions in the recipe, point 9). : )
Hi Katia! This is the most perfect cake I’ve baked in years, I’m not much of a baker. I used olive oil and I didn’t mind the beetroot colour. But that was only on the top. Once I unmoulded it, it looked brown like chocolate. The Chocolate drip is still wet, after a couple of hours. Is that how it is?
Do you have an Instagram page?
I’m so pleased to hear that, Sra! Thanks so much for sharing. : )
Sometimes the melted chocolate is still wet after hours, that’s fine (it depends on the temperature and humidity of the room) but it will harden, or you can place it in the fridge to speed up the process.
But feel free to enjoy your lovely cake with sticky melted chocolate anyway (I love it even more to be honest : ). Enjoy! x
Hi could you use sweetner instead of sugar?
Hi Jacinta, unfortunately I’ve never tested the recipe with other sweetener. x
Omg this cake was soooo yummy! Everyone was shocked there were beets in it. Will definitely be making this again but bigger next time. So moist & tastey. I used freshly boiled beets & a different dark chocolate frosting but superb nonetheless.
Amazing! I’ve made it so many times and we love it too, and I’m so happy that you love my cake recipes. : )
Thanks so much for sharing your feedback! x
Hi Katia, I made this recipe yesterday but it didn’t turn out quite right. Like another commenter Lindy mentioned, the cake stayed a bit more beet-colored, the batter was thick/stiff and the texture even after baking wasn’t quite right. It tasted great and chocolatey but the texture is very dense and kind of gummy inside with sort of a harder skin on the outside? Any guesses what might’ve been the issue?
My oven isn’t very good so it doesn’t heat evenly or get as hot. I worried if I should turn up the temperature more or maybe tin foil over it would get the inside to cook better? My mom greased AND floured the sides of the bundt pan because she said that’s the only way to get cake out of bundt pans. Would that have prevented the cake from rising properly/couldn’t climb the sides of the pan?
Your recipe doesn’t say whether to drain the can of beets or not but judging from the picture, it looks like you just put beets in and not any liquid. I used half a 15oz can eye-balling it or could slightly extra beets throw things off?
I used Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder. Could that kind for some reason have less effect on the color? I misread and used vanilla extract rather than essence so hoped the amount was the same. I used melted Earth Balance non-dairy butter instead of vegetable oil. I also used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour. Unfortunately, that has xanthan gum already mixed in so I wonder if it contained too much to contribute to the gummy-ness? I would’ve preferred flour without that added so I could adjust the amount of non-gluten alternative binder but that’s just what we had on hand. Do you think this recipe may not perform as well with gluten-free flour mix? Just trying to figure out what could’ve been the main issue. Perhaps as you told Lindy, it was just a bit too much flour in general making the batter stiff?
Hi Carla, thanks for the feedback! : )
The main issue is the gluten-free flour instead of all purpose flour, probably the non-dairy butter instead of vegetable oil (and maybe an oven that doesn’t work well).
Many things can affect the texture of a cake to be honest, but following the recipe as written is very important to get a good result.
Hope this helps, take care x
Do you think this would work as cupcakes? Try to travel with it, cupcakes would be way easier for that but don’t want to mess it up! Thanks
Hi! I did it once, I used this batter to make muffins, and although they turned out very good, the muffin paper cases were wet and looked messy.
For this reason, I wouldn’t serve them as cupcakes in their paper cases. Cheers. x
Hi, just made this cake, or used it as template… I put spelt flour, coconut oil and agave syrup, also added cca 180g whey powder-chocolate flavor and 1 banana.
It turned out little bit too much mixture for bundt pan in which I put it (it leaked out in the middle 🙂 ), probably because of this added ingredients of mine and I didn’t realize it will grow this much when baked.
But all in all, cake is amazing, taste is just great! Definitely will be baked a lot, but next time I will follow recipe 😉
Thank you!
I’m so pleased it turned out amazing, your adjustments worked anyway, Ivana! Thanks for sharing your lovely feedback! 💛
Hi just made this cake, the mixture was very stiff when putting into the baking tin and it is still a beetroot colour and not chocolate🙈
Hi Lindy! The colour should be like the raw batter in the picture, the cocoa powder turns that pink into a brown, kind of. It shouldn’t be beetroot color.
And if the batter is very stiff, I think you’ve added extra flour. Bake it, hopefully color and texture will improve.
I’ve baked this cake so many times, and it always turns out great. I hope you’ll enjoy it. x
hi can i use a round cake tin to bake this ?
If so what size?
Hi! Yes, you can use a round tin 😊 (both 9-inch tin or 10-inch tin work fine) x
Thanks so much for this recipe! Was really easy to follow and the cake was fab! Received beetroot in my veg box and we had no idea what to do with it (and we don’t much like beetroot anyway!). The cake was deliciously moist. I added about 200g of milk and white chocolate chunks as I had leftover cooking chocolate from another baking adventure and it made it so chocolatey. We really liked it!
I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe, and you managed to bake something delicious with your beetroot 😊 Thanks so much for your comment! x
Hi katia, just a question because I’ve never ever used canned beets – do we use them straight out of the can or do we have to boil them before blending in the food processor? Looking forward to trying this recipe out!
Hi! 😊 Straight out of the can is fine, no boiling is required, the beetroots are already cooked and soft. Let me know how it turns out 😉 x
Thank you Katia for the response:) Because I’m going to be using weight instead of volume measurements, can I confirm that the recipe calls for 80g of vegetable oil? It says half a cup, but i googled and some say half a cup is 120g.
HI! 😊 It’s actually a scant 1/2 cup, it means slightly less than 1/2 cup which on my kitchen scale is about 80-90 grams.
I’ve baked this cake many times and a small variation in the amount of oil doesn’t change the final result, but I’ll add a note to the recipe card to clarify.
And you’re right, if you google it you’ll find that half cup of oil is 120 ml/120 grams. But oil is lighter than water, and even if we fill the 1/2 cup at maximum capacty, it won’t be 120 grams.
Thanks for your question and happy baking! 💛
This cake was very popular with my family , the kids loved it.
I used boiled beets , peeled and chopped instead of canned beets and 78 dark chocolate for the sauce.
It was finished within a couple of days. 🙂
Thank you for another great cake recipe.
Thanks so much for your comment, Bianca! I’m so happy you enjoy my cake recipes 🙂
Thanks a lot for sharing the recipe. It was amazingly delicious! Just as said, it was super moist, easy and healthy! You couldn’t even taste the beetroot! I’m a dark chocolate fan, so I added some chunks inside the cake as well. It tasted soo good, that we finished half the cake when it was still the baking tray! I can’t stop eating it. Amazing recipe, and very healthy with the goodness of beetroot too!
Your comment made my day, Sanika! I’m so pleased you loved this delicious cake made with simple healthy ingredients, we love it too 🙂 thanks so much for sharing x
We loved it, it was a hit, thanks so much for the recipe!
Thanks for your feedback, Kevin, I’m so glad you liked it 🙂
Amounts ? How many eggs, etc??????
Hi Kim, the recipe cards is at the bottom of the post 😊 x
Wowwww many thanks for this incredible recipe !! It was huuuge hit and I hate beetroot ! But in this recipe omg it was delicious! I just put 1 banana and 7 dates instead of sugar and we all loved it ! Children and parents
I’m so pleased it was a hit, Inela! 😍 Thanks so much for sharing your lovely feedback! x