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Surprise chocolate, beetroot and blackcurrant pudding

What’s the surprise?  Two of them a) it has a ‘magic’ chocolate sauce that starts on top and ends up in the bottom when it’s cooked and b) it is the most delicious, unhealthy chocolate pudding recipe but with a healthy twist as it has a fruit and vegetable to give it some plus points.

If there is any left the pudding is lovely eaten cold as chocolate cake.

Ingredients: serves 4-6 people

200g soft butter or margarine
200g light muscovado sugar
4 eggs
200g self raising flour
3 heaped tablespoons good quality cocoa powder
150g blackcurrants
1 raw courgette or raw, peeled beetroot, grated.

For the sauce:

100g light muscovado sugar
3 heaped tablespoons good quality cocoa powder
600ml boiling water

  1. Preheat the oven to 180c/Gas 4 (AGA roasting oven, shelf on oven floor and plain cold shelf on second set of runners).
  2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
  3. Add the eggs, flour and cocoa and mix well, add blackcurrants and courgette or beetroot and gently fold in.
  4. Grease the heatproof dish and pour in the chocolate sponge mixture.
  5. Mix together the sauce ingredients, pour the hot chocolate sauce over the sponge mixture. It will sit on top of the batter and gradually soak in, don’t stir it, just leave it
  6. Bake for 20-30 minutes (AGA: baking oven shelf on 2nd set of runners, roasting oven shelf on oven floor). Check after 15 minutes and if the top of the pudding is browning too quickly cover it with some tinfoil.
  7. Eat warm with custard or vanilla ice cream.