Innocent Chocolate Cake

Hi everyone.  Who's for delicious, healthy and guilt free chocolate cake? Did you think there was a hint of sarcasm to the post title or that is was tongue in cheek? Well no, when I developed the recipe I didn't want to call it guilt free or healthy so I decided that innocent was an appropriate alternative.
The recipe was inspired by a friend who follows mainly a Paleo diet, so that means no sugar, no flour, no butter and lots of other things. She does indulge every now and again, on special occasions. I wanted to take a sweet treat to her place one evening so I thought I would take on the challenge of making something that was yummy and basically fit her diet.
So with my own basic cake formula (which I'll work on sharing at a later date), I decided on the ingredient replacements; dates for the sugar, almond meal (I grind my own almonds) for the flour & oil for the butter. Add some cocoa, because everything tastes better if it's chocolate, vanilla, eggs and you have the ingredients for one healthy chocolate cake.

A bit of soaking, blending, beating, mixing and baking. 

VOILA "Innocent Chocolate Cake" was born. 

This is a great everyday cake, as it satisfies those cravings for chocolate and something sweet without the guilt factor. For me it is wheat free and for that matter it's also gluten free.

Now I don't want you to think I'm a complete wowser when it comes to baking. On special occasions I still indulge in the decedent much less healthy cake options and  I'll share them with you as well but for today it's Innocent Chocolate Cake.

 

INNOCENT CHOCOLATE CAKE

1 cp dates (cover with water & soak until soft)

200g almond meal (approx 2cps)

1/3 cp cocoa

½ teas bicarb soda

1 teas baking powder

1 ts vanilla

¼ cp olive oil

3 eggs (separated)

Grease a 20cm (8") cake tin with oil, line the base with baking paper and dust the side with a mixture of cocoa & almond meal.

Mix together dry ingredients in a bowl. Puree dates with oil, vanilla and egg yolks until smooth, add to dry ingredients and mix well. Beat egg whites to soft peaks. Mix 1/3 of the egg whites into mixture thoroughly, then gently fold through the remaining egg whites. Pour/spoon mixture into prepared tin and bake at 180C (360F) for approximately 30 mins or cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool slightly before removing from the tin.

PRINT RECIPE

 

I would love you to let me know what you think about the recipe or blog. You can either comment here or you can also comment or follow me as One Earlybird on Facebook or @oneearlybird on Instagram.

Hope you have a fantastic day until next time

 

TOODLES

 PS. Coming soon, by popular demand, another winter warming soup recipe.