I’ve been awfully quiet on the blog. First there was a trip to Thailand, then a spot of camping and last but not least I broke my arm. This puts me out of action on the cooking front although I’m trying madly to find recipes I can make one handed.
Anyway before the excitement of trips away and broken bones I had a few other minor health problems. One of the suggestions to help was a 2 week trial of being gluten free. I was resigned to not baking during that time, but the I stumbled upon this recipe from Nigella Lawson for a gluten and dairy free chocolate cake. I’ve never had much success with gluten free cakes, but if Nigella’s singing its praises it’s worth a go.
And….. it was so very very good. I think it was actually better eaten warm but was still pretty divine the next day.
Chocolate Olive Oil Cake – recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson
50 grams cocoa powder
125 ml boiling water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
150 grams ground almonds (or Nigella says you can use 125g plain flour so obviously it becomes not gluten free & I didn’t make it this way so I can’t say what it would be like but probably pretty delicious)
½ teaspoon bi carb
200g sugar
3 eggs
150 ml olive oil (I just used everyday olive oil which I think would be best as it doesn’t have a massively strong flavour)
pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 170°C Grease springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking paper.
Sift the cocoa powder into jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, just runny paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then let cool a little.
In another bowl, combine the ground almonds with bi carb and pinch of salt.
Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of mixer and beat together on high for about 3 minutes until its a pale and like thickened cream.
Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, when its all in slowly add the ground almond mixture.
Scrape down, and stir with a spatula, then pour batter into the tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and centre top still looks a bit moist. Check with a skewer and if it comes out clean with a few crumbs on it its done.
In its tin let the cake cool for 10 minutes on a cooling rack, and gently ease the sides of the cake with a small knife and spring it out of the tin.
Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as we did (thus making it not dairy free but I’m sure you can find a dairy free accompaniment or eat as is which given how good it is is perfectly justifiable)
Kitchen Adventures with Lucy 