Chocolate, beetroot & hazelnut fairy cakes for Mothers Day

Getting the balance between completely delicious and at least a little bit healthy is tough, but fear not, this tiny little wandering fairy cake is coming to a mother's day near you to save your buns! Part vegetable, part molten chocolate, part sheer awesome! Most beetroot cakes I've tried before are very beety, which isn't always a good thing, especially in a chocolate cake. This one however uses cooked beetroot, so the flavour is much more subtle. 

 Ingredients
4 oz cooked beetroot, blended into a course mush.
4 oz spelt flour (or other plain white flour).
2 eggs (Medium, free range).
4 oz butter.
5 oz brown sugar.
1 tsp baking powder.
2 oz dark chocolate, melted.
1 tablespoon cocoa powder.
70g hazelnuts, toasted & blitzed to a course powder.

Method
Cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and mix well. Add the hazelnut powder, baking powder, cocoa powder and flour and stir until just combined. Add in the beetroot & chocolate and stir again until just combined. Divide between cupcake cases and bake in a preheated oven at 180 oC for about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 mins. Once they are cool enough to handle, get 'em out of the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

The icing I made was - 200g of cream cheese, 4 tablespoons of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 2 tsp lemon juice. Mixed together and spread generously over the cooled cakes.

Makes about 12 small fairy cakes. Prep time 20 mins. Cooking time 15 mins.