Vegan Chocolate Banana Cake

Preheat oven to 400 F. Clean and trim ends off the beets. Roast for 30-40 minutes on a baking sheet. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Remove the peels then roughly chop the beets. Puree them in a food processor. You’ll need 1 cup of the puree for this recipe.

Reduce oven to 350 F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans. In a small bowl, add vinegar to milk and stir. Set aside to curdle.

In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients and set aside.

In a separate bowl use a mixer to cream coconut oil and sugar. Add pureed beets, banana, milk mixture and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until combined.

Pour evenly into baking pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool before frosting.

For the frosting: Add all ingredients (except powdered sugar and the decorations) into a food processor or mixer. Process for several minutes. Add in powdered sugar and mix slowly. Mix very well until there are no more little flaky green avocado specks. Remove one cake from the tin and place it on a serving platter. Spread some of the frosting on top. Then add the other cake and frost the entire cake.

Garnish with hazelnuts and coconut, if desired.

This recipe is adapted from Food and Nutrition Magazine December 2014 and developed by Michaela Ballman MS, RD.