Cacao-Beetroot Cupcakes

Makes 12

Now don’t be put off by the fact that these include beetroot – they really do taste delicious and give such an interesting texture. Plus who doesn’t love cake that is actually good for you?? If you are buying pre-cooked beetroot, make sure it isn’t marinated in vinegar!

Raw cacao is full of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and in particular manganese which speeds up your metabolism and is massively energising!  Raw cacao can also be bought cheaply in bulk on Amazon – my go-to site for buying superfoods.

 Ingredients:

3 large eggs

65ml organic coconut oil (melted) - equiv. to about 4.5 tbsp

65ml organic coconut milk - equiv. to about 4.5 tbsp (I used Rebel Kitchen's Chai flavoured coconut milk as it tastes delish, but any natural coconut milk will be fine)

3 tbsp organic honey or date syrup or maple syrup (depending on how sweet you'd like it)

Pinch of sea salt

8 tbsp raw cacao powder

2 beetroot, peeled and whizzed

1 tsp baking powder

8 tbsp dessicated coconut

4 tbsp buckwheat flour (or regular wheat flour if they don't need to be gluten-free)

Method:

1.     Preheat the oven to 200 Celcius.

2.     Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin cases

3.     Blitz the cooked and cooled beetroot in a food processor

4.     Beat the eggs, oil, coconut milk, honey (or maple/date syrup) and sea salt

5.      Add the beetroot to the egg mixture

6.     Mix the maca powder, cacao powder and flour together in a large bowl and then stir in the baking powder

7.     Add the coconut flour, 1 tbsp at a time.  You can add more or less depending on how moist you like them - the actual mixture won't be like usual cake batter but much runnier (I often fill the muffin cases using a ladel).

8.     Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

NB. You can also make a healthy frosting with raw cacao, coconut cream and vanilla essence, or just a simple glaze of agave nectar and powdered cinnamon. But they also taste great just plain!