Gluten free chocolate, buckwheat and cardamom cake

Mon, 8 May 2017

RECIPE

Serves 8 – 10

Ingredients

120g 70% dark chocolate
120g coconut oil or unsalted butter
120g coconut palm sugar or brown sugar
4 eggs
Good pinch of sea salt
120g ground almonds
40g buckwheat flour, or spelt flour if you can tolerate gluten
½ tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder

Icing

300g regular or dairy free cream cheese
4 tbsp honey
100g coconut oil, melted
Cocoa powder, to dust

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / gas mark 4 and grease and line two 18cm round cake tins.

For the icing, put the cream cheese and honey into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Remove to a bowl and stir through the melted coconut. Cover and refrigerate.

Melt the chocolate and coconut oil or butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, eggs and salt together until the mixture has increased in volume and is light. Stir the ground almonds, flour, cardamom, vanilla, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder into the chocolate mixture, then fold in the egg and sugar mixture until well combined. It is quite a wet mixture, but this is fine.

Divide the mixture between the two cake tins and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, until the sides of the cake are firm and cooked through, but the very centre remains a little unset. This will firm up as it cools and ensure a really moist and squidgy cake. Leave to cool for 15 minutes then carefully turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Ice one layer with half the icing, place the second layer on top and finish with the remaining icing. Dust liberally with cocoa powder and serve.

Watch how it's made below: