French,  Sweet

Almond chocolate cake

2 June 2012 / 13 Comments

You may have noticed that I never use normal flour in my recipes. This isn’t only because eating refined wheat flour is about as nutritious as snacking on yesterday’s newspaper, but because I’m wheat-intolerant. It’s not something I harp on about a) because it’s boring and b) because I’ve noticed that not ‘tolerating’ is something that brings out the devil in a lot of people. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have offered me something that is quite patently going to have me doubled up in agony within the next twelve hours and refused to take no for an answer when I decline: ‘Oh go on, I’ve just made it, a little bit won’t hurt, surely…’ It’s as if I’m saying no to be awkward, or to be interesting or different. Err no, if I wanted to be awkward I’d ask you to serve it to me sprinkled with powdered rhino horn, and if I wanted to be interesting or different I’d dye my hair indigo and take up mud pit belly flopping.

This cake, regardless of your ‘wheat status’, is divine. It will leave you wondering why you ever made chocolate cakes with wheat flour. The fact that it uses powdered almonds means that, for a chocolate cake, its GI is quite low and that it contains valuable nutrients. It also has a fairly low sugar content.

Ingredients

5 eggs

130g cane sugar

140g powdered almonds

60g butter

60g coconut oil

125g dark chocolate (preferably 90% coco)

pinch of bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Melt the chocolate with the butter and coconut oil. Once melted, add to the sugar, egg yolks, almonds, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and pour into a 20cm cake tin. Bake for 45 minutes.


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13 Comments

  • An Honest Mom

    2 September 2012 at 22:57 Reply

    This looks amazing! I’ve been trying to find a good, wholesome recipe for my son’s 3rd birthday cake and I think this might be the one! do you think this recipe would work as cupcakes? and do you have any ideas for frosting? maybe a simple whipped cream? (glad I ran across your blog!)

    • The Healthy Epicurean

      2 September 2012 at 23:11 Reply

      Thank you 🙂 In my experience it never fails to please adults and children alike. It’s actually an old traditional French recipe which I adapted slightly to make it more healthy. I think it would work as cupcakes, although you would have to reduce the cooking time (don’t forget it’s quite ‘dense’ so would need longer than normal cupcakes probably). I often serve it with raspberries or with a custard (crème anglaise) sauce. Whipped cream definitely works too though, as would a butter icing made with butter and coconut oil?
      Here’s a suggestion :
      1 cup virgin coconut oil
      1 stick unsalted butter
      8 cups powdered sugar
      4 tablespoons heavy cream
      1 tablespoon vanilla paste
      Good luck and please let me know how they turn out… and Happy Birthday to your son.

      • An Honest Mom

        10 September 2012 at 20:25 Reply

        i made a double recipe in 8 inch cake tins, and it was AMAZING. also made your icing recipe. i halved the amounts you recommended and had more than enough for both cakes. everyone loved it and i felt fabulous because I hardly ever bake, and turned out this gorgeous cake. 🙂 My gluten free friends were very impressed. I’ll be trolling your blog for more easy recipes now…

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