Rich Father’s Day chocolate beet cake

What to make for Dad on Father’s Day? Well, cake of course! Here’s the perfect Father’s Day chocolate cake to pamper all the great dads out there, and the best thing is, it’s big enough for sharing.

This rich and scrumptious Father’s Day chocolate cake is made with lots of chocolate and cocoa, yummy cream cheese frosting and crunchy salty almonds on top. I love a good carrot cake, and I find that using veggies in cakes adds an interesting complexity in taste as well as a natural moisture that keeps the cake from going dry. Therefore we’ve taken this chocolate cake a notch further and added a bit of beetroot, creating a deep dark and deliciously moist cake that will surely make Dad feel special. And in the unlike event that there are leftovers, just pop it in the fridge and it will keep nicely for a couple of days.

Curiously, Father’s Day is not celebrated on the same day throughout the world like Mother’s Day. In Denmark for example, Father’s Day is on Constitution Day, June 5, while in Canada and the States it’s always the third Sunday in June. I was slightly confused by this the first year after moving from Denmark to Canada, but I’ve come to appreciate it’s advantages: Now I’ve got the best excuse to make cake for my husband twice (as my kids are too young for the task), and of course help him eat it 😉

Father’s Day chocolate cake with beets, cream cheese frosting and salted, roasted almonds

Ingredients

For the chocolate cake:

3.5 oz (100 g) dark chocolate, 72% cocoa

½ cup (3.5 oz/100 g) salted butter

3 eggs

1 2/3 cups (8.8 oz/250 g) all purpose flour

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

3 tsp baking powder

2/3 cup (5.3 oz/150 g) brown sugar, preferably Demerara

5.3 oz (150 g) peeled red beets, finely shredded

For the frosting and topping:

½ cup (3.5 oz/100 g) soft salted butter

8 oz (225 g) cream cheese (the whipped one from Philadelphia works really well)

2 cups (250 g) confectioner’s sugar

Seeds from 1 vanilla bean or 1 tsp vanilla extract

Optional: 1 tbsp cognac, brandy or rum – whichever is Dad’s favorite 🙂

1.75 oz (50 g) roasted salted almonds – see recipe here

Directions

1. First, turn on the oven at 350 F (175 C). Then melt the butter and the dark chocolate together in a small pot over low heat. Once melted, let the mixture cool for about 15 min.

2. While the butter chocolate cream is cooling off, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, brown sugar and shredded beets.

3. Now whisk the eggs, one at a time, into the butter chocolate cream, and then pour the egg, chocolate, butter cream into the flour mix and stir well.

4. Coat a baking pan about 8 x 11 inches (20 x 28 cm) with baking parchment or butter and pour in the chocolate cake batter. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes. Check with a needle or fork to see if the cake is done before you take it out of the oven. Leave to cool completely before putting on the frosting.

5. For the frosting simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and whip well to avoid any lumps and to make the frosting nice and fluffy. Then smear the frosting on top of the chocolate cake in an even layer.

6. Finally, chop the roasted salted almonds and drizzle evenly over the frosting.

Enjoy!

If you feel like one cake is not really enough, or if, like me, you’ve got an excuse to celebrate Father’s Day twice, here’s another great cake I’m sure Dad (and you) would love:

Danish brunsviger, or, sticky brown sugar bread cake

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