Britain loves Beetroot : Beetroot And Raspberries Chocolate Muffins ...

A couple of months ago I was contacted by the lovely people at Baxters, informing me that they are launching a Britain loves Beetroot campaign. They were looking for bloggers to take part in a making their own beetroot recipe as part of a fun challenge.  We love beetroot in our house, (only yesterday my son had it with his fish and chips) so I was looking forward to taking part.

 This is the hamper we kindly got sent- 4 different jars of beetroot, a cooking apron and this beautiful picnic hamper. It arrived Christmas eve, great timing then to go with lots of party food. The first thing we tried was some Rosy Roast Beetroot Roots , a recipe I posted for Baxters a while ago. Not having got around to trying it myself I was looking forward to making these. As it was for Christmas day dinner and we were already having mash and roasted potatoes, I decided to change the recipe slightly to 300g of parsnips in place of the potatoes.

Apart from lots of little snacks over the Christmas holidays using the beetroot, I was thinking is there a sweet recipe I could try? How could I incorporate beetroot into cake? There must be a way!! 

 Here then is my recipe I made up for the beetroot challenge.  My daughter who is not yet a beetroot fan could not wait to try them, and she loved them too...

Ingredients

75g Beetroot in sweet malt vinegar,drained and grated

75g Thawed raspberries drained and cut up

125g Self raising flour (sieved)

125g Golden Caster sugar

125g Stork baking liquid

2 Eggs

25g Coco powder

1tsp vanilla essence

Topping

100g Cream cheese

70g Icing sugar

1 Tbsp of raspberries juice ( from the thawed raspberries)

12 Thawed raspberries

Chocolate sprinkles

Sprinkle of icing sugar for dusting tops

Method

Preheat the oven to 180˚C/Gas Mark 4

Place 12 muffin bun cases in a 12 holed muffin tray

Place the baking liquid and golden caster sugar in a bowl and mix together with an electric whisk

Beat in the eggs one at a time with a little of the flour

Mix in the remaining flour and coco powder

Using a wooden spoon mix in the beetroot, Raspberries and vanilla essence

Spoon the mixture evenly between the muffin cases

Cook in the middle of a preheated oven for around 25 minutes

Once cooked place on a wire rack and leave to cool completely

Making the icing

Place the cream cheese in a bowl with raspberries juice and with a fork mix together

Sieve the icing sugar into the bowl and mix again ( place in fridge for 30 mins. to cool as it may get a little runny)

Place a spoonful on top of each bun

Place a raspberry in the middle few chocolate sprinkles and little bit of icing sugar

I was so pleased with how my beetroot and raspberries chocolate muffins turned out...

About this post- I was kindly asked to take part in this beetroot challenge and was not paid for this post. All thoughts are my own honest opinion...