Food blog eighteen - Healthy chocolate cake

For those of you who have been following my food blogs you’ll know I’ve been trying gluten-free, sugar-free and low-processed (low GI)carb foods. 

I’ve also been doing a work out - roughly thrice weekly. All this activity is in aid of the restoration of my strength & fitness after suffering a slipped disc at the start of the year. 

When going ‘low-carb’ it’s imperative to cut out bread, pasta, rice, cake and biscuits. I’ve not missed anything in this list apart from cake. And, as dark chocolate is a treat which is a boost for good health, baking a wholesome chocolate cake has become my mission. 

I’ve tried several chocolate cake recipes. The first was a good taste but became desperately dry. I broke it up and used it as the base for a rich amaretto trifle instead. Soaked in booze. Lovely!

The second recipe I tried was moist and had a splendid rich chocolate ganache but even that cake - with olive oil and more added liquid - tasted dry after a day or so.

Discussing recipes with a friend (who me?) we decided we’d try a red kidney bean cake. This is gluten-free and I make it with Truvia so it’s sugar-free too. It’s also one of the better versions of chocolate cake when it comes to moisture.

Red kidney bean choccie cake-

this is v moist & gluten-free

Ingredients

• 420 g canned kidney beans - drained
• 1 tbs coffee (liquid)
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 70 g cocoa powder unsweetened - I use chocolat Menier
• 1 tsp baking powder - gluten-free
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 125 g butter or  90 g/100 ml olive oil
•  ( cold pressed)
• 5 eggs
• 180 g sugar or 60g Truvia

😉You may want to add a little extra vanilla to the cake mix if you find olive oil has an obvious taste. I don’t but others might want to mask it.

Method

• 1 In a food processor, puree the beans, coffee, 1 egg and vanilla until smooth. Set aside.
• 2 Combine butter/olive oil and truvia/sugar in a food processor until pale and fluffy.
• 3 Add the remaining eggs one at a time, to the butter mix, processing well after each addition.
• 4 Add bean mixture and process until combined.
• 5 Add sifted cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix well.
• 6 Pour batter into a 22 cm greased round pan and bake for approximately 35 minutes at 180C/160C fan.The cake will spring back when touched and a skewer will come out clean when the cake is cooked.

😉 The cake might deflate once out of the oven - this is normal. 

When cool cover the cake with a ganache made from whipping cream and broken, melted 70% cocoa chocolate squares. 

For the ganache

• 400g dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I use Green & Blacks 70% dark chocolate)
• 200ml cream

To make the chocolate ganache, place the broken dark chocolate pieces in a mixing bowl, then set aside.

Bring the cream to the boil - just bubbling - and pour over the dark chocolate. Immediately mix well with a hand-held mixer until the chocolate melts and the ganache becomes silky smooth. Set aside to cool. 

Either

1 Once cooled, beat using an electric mixer until fluffy and smooth if you want a thick, fluffy frosting.

2 Otherwise - let it cool a little then pour on the top of the cake starting at the centre and working outwards. This gives a glossy finish.

Alternatively - if you want to :-

Carefully cut the cake in half. Spread half the ganache onto the bottom half of the cake and spread to the edges. Place the top half back on top and then smooth the remaining ganache over the top of the cake.