Beetroot cake with walnuts (vegetarian)

• Butter, for the dish
• 200 g beetroot, cooked
• 200 g butter
• 200 g sugar
• 2 tbsp vanilla sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 5 eggs (M)
• 200 g flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 dash ground mace
• 1 dash ground cloves
• 80 g ground walnuts
• 200 g walnut kernels, chopped
• 70 g chocolate drops
• milk, if required
• very finely chopped mint
• icing sugar, for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C top and bottom heat. Grease a box dish lightly with butter and line with baking paper, overlapping the edges slightly.

2. Finely dice the beetroot.

3. Mix the soft butter with the sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt until creamy. Gradually stir in the eggs one by one. Mix the flour with the baking powder and the spices and fold in with the ground walnuts. Add the beetroot cubes, half of the chopped walnuts, and the chocolate drops. Stir everything briefly and add some milk if necessary.

4. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.

5. Take out, sprinkle the remaining walnut kernels in stripes lengthwise down the middle and bake the cake ready in 20 - 30 minutes (sample with chopsticks).

6. Take it out, cover the cake briefly with aluminium foil and let it cool down a little in the tin, then lift it out of the tin together with the paper and let it cool down on a cake rack. Place on a plate, sprinkle the cake with a little of the finely chopped mint, dust lightly with icing sugar and serve.