Naturopathic Doctor

This flourless, eggless mousse cake is a real oddity in that it tastes both sweet and slightly savoury, and it seems to alternate flavours of chocolate and beetroot on the tongue. And it tastes great with whipped cream. It can be made vegan by using some of the really good sugar and dairy free chocolate available. If you can’t get really dark chocolate, then use the darkest you can find and add a few tablespoons of dark cocoa-it makes the cake that much richer.

Makes one large 24cm cake (enough to feed 10-12)

• 375g roasted and peeled beetroot, cut into chunks
• 450g firm silken tofu
• 70g unrefined caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 350g chocolate (minimum 60% cocoa solids) melted
• chocolate shards or fruit and cream to serve (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180˚C (gas 4) and line the base and sides of a 24cm loose-bottomed round cake tin with baking parchment-but don’t grease it.

Place the beetroot, tofu, sugar, vanilla and baking powder in a food processor and blitz to a fine puree. Tip into a bowl and mix in the melted chocolate.

Pour into the tin and bake for 30minutes. The cake will look quite uncooked but don’t panic-it will be fine. Leave to cool completely (it’s quite a soft cake), then remove from the tin and place on a large plate. Store in the fridge until needed, but bring back to room temperature before serving.

To serve, simply cut into wedges and decorate with chocolate shards or serve with fruit (it’s great with berries, pineapple and mango) and, if you like, cream.