My new toy

This Christmas I gave the hubster two options for my present: 1) a Juicer or 2) a Juicer. To which he replied “not another kitchen appliance!” Okaaaay! So I have a little addiction to collecting kitchen utensils and appliances, but in my defense I use them all! Weirdly though instead of breaking this bad boy out of its box as soon as I got it on Christmas day...I waited while I researched and contemplated what exactly to do with it. It’s a pretty big contraption that needed a space in my already full of crap kitchen. I also needed an abundance of fruit to juice.  Then out of the blue I was given a giant bag of unwanted home grown grapes from my parents  and in-laws. First juice in juicer....grape juice! Delicious! It was a good start.

{Breville juice fountain}

This week I was given a big bag of home grown apples and I bought some beetroot hoping to try a new mix. During my research I found that juicing is a good way of getting a good dose of vitamins  and a whole bunch of nutrients  but dietitians and nutritionists are skeptical of the fact that while the juice may be good the fiber that is left out from the juicing is a real shame....queue today’s experimental cooking!

{Zak Zak is absolutely obsessed with helping me juice. He keeps asking when we can do again.}

{Apple and beetroot juice}

My juicer can apparently take whole apples peel and pips in all, but I took the time to peel and cut out the flesh from each one and I did the same for the beetroot. After the juicing process the pulp I was left with was quite dry so what I did was, I added the gross frothy stuff that comes out and a little tap water to re-hydrate it and then I popped it in the microwave to cook for about 4 minutes. It looked just like actual apple sauce except with a few larger bits of pulp. I then used a hand blender and blitzed up the fruit pulp until it was smooth. 

{Re-hydrated and cooked apple and beetroot pulp from juicer}

 ~Apple and Beetroot Chocolate cake~

{super moist}

Righto ready for some cake!

I turned my juicing pulp into a chocolate cake...but a healthy- good for you- version!

I haven’t quite perfected the recipe yet but here's how I did it:

Beetroot and Apple Chocolate cake

200g butter melted

1 cup white sugar

1 and ½ cups beetroot and apple cooked pulp

1 Egg

1 cup self raising flour

½ dark cocoa

1 cup dark chocolate chips

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl.  Pour mix into a greased cake tin and cook until skewer comes out clean around 40 minutes on 180 degree oven.

When cool. Ice it with your favourite chocolate icing. 

The result a super moist cake.

The kids have almost finished the whole cake and because it has beetroot in it... I'm just stoked they are eating it! Especially since they didn't really like the juice I made them.

Next time I might try and see if the same works for carrot pulp from carrot juice.

{Not usually a cake eater!}