Beetroot cake disaster - help (1 Viewer)

[Ortonesque]

I hope someone can help with this. I tried this cake last year as made by the catering company which provides the recipe on its website. I've tried making it at home twice and each time it's a disaster - it tastes too eggy, the beetroot gives a weird taste, and even though a knife comes out clean at the end of the cooking time, the bottom half of the cake remains greasy and wet. It does look very runny before it goes in the oven. I've thrown both attempts in the bin. I really want to make it though and am geared up for a third attempt. I have received a suggestion to bake it in a ceramic cake tray rather than metal, to switch to coconut flour rather than rice flour as it's more absorbent, but I am still worried something is off on the ratio/quantities. Can anyone give their thoughts? Seems like way too much beetroot to me, and maybe way too much oil?

Millennium seeded beetroot cake
Recipe by Ampersand catering.
Ingredients
5 eggs,
230g dark brown sugar
½ tbsp mixed spice
½ tbsp ground cinnamon
50g desiccated coconut
100g sultanas
200g rice flour
1 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
500g grated raw peeled beetroot
200ml vegetable oil
Mixed seeds to decorate


Method
All in one method except for veg oil.
Bake on 150ºC for 45mins.

 

[Angie]

Hiya

At first glance it does seem that you have a lot of wet ingredients in the recipe for the amount of flour you are using especially rice flour. As you state that the cake itself is too greasy and wet suggests that the oil isn't absorbing into the cake batter properly when you are doing the all in one method and then it is just literally sitting on the base when you have baked it.

With regards to Ceramic tins they are very poor conductors of heat and take longer to warm up in the oven than conventional metal tins and then take a lot longer to cool down when you have baked the cake, this may have an adverse affect on your rise and overall bake of your cake.

As for the switch of flour it may be worth trying to substitute coconut flour for rice flour as you won't need as much of the flour due to it's absorbency to liquid and it's also another gluten free alternative.

On the ratio I use on eggs to flour I would probably opt for around 3 eggs in your mix and at least half your raw beetroot ingredients to say somewhere between 150-200 grams just to get the wet ingredients reduced.

Using gluten free flour in recipes can be trial and error until you get the consistency correct.

You may also wish to compare your Beetroot Cake recipe with others just to see if they have the same quantities.

Hope this helps and Good luck with your next bake.