Vegan Chocolate Beet Cake

Cake:

• 3 cups wholemeal flour (or white if that's all you have)
• 1/2 cups cocoa
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 medium beet, grated
• 3/4 cups canola oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 cup silken tofu

Icing:

• 1 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
• pinch of ground cardamom
• 4 tsp water

Don't let the beets put you off! They make this cake a very moist delicious (vegan) treat.

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF, grease and line a 8 or 9 in cake pan - springform if you have one.

2. Sift the flour and cocoa together in a bowl. Add the sugar and grated beet and mix to combine. In another bowl, mix together the oil, water, baking powder and tofu until smooth. Add to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

3. Pour the batter into the cake tin and cook in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check the cake after 1 hour with the toothpick test - if a toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done. The cake will come out of the oven slightly cracked on top.

4. To make cardamom icing: mix icing sugar, cardamom and water in a small bowl until smooth. Spread over top of cooled cake and leave for 15 minutes to set. (Or you can skip the icing and dust the top with icing sugar.)