Monday, May 26, 2014

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake (Secret Recipe Club)

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake Gluten Free Dairy Free © www.foodbabylife.com

Secret Recipe Club time!

This month I was assigned The More than Occasional Baker by Ros and let me say it was an absolute pleasure spending some time on her blog. Baking has always been my first love but I'm not doing much of it these days because of time and dietary restrictions. I must have looked at/drooled over nearly every recipe on her blog and found so many things I would have loved to make (and eat). The Peanut Butter Toblerone Cheesecake and Neapolitan Rose Cake really caught my eye!

In the end I settled on this Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, not only because I had all the ingredients but because it sounded insanely good. It didn't disappoint! This is a Nigella Lawson recipe after all and they are always pretty reliable and delicious.

I made a few minor substitutions, replacing some of the regular olive oil with extra virgin, using dextrose instead of sugar and blitzing up some raw ABC nuts (almond, brazil and cashew) instead of the almond meal because that's what I happened to have. The resulting ground nuts weren't quite as fine as what you can buy but I think that added to the charm of this cake.

In case you can't tell, we LOVED this cake. Special enough for a dinner party but easily enough to make any time, this recipe is a winner. Thanks Ros!

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson via The More Than Occasional Baker

75 ml regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
75 ml extra virgin olive oil
50 g good-quality cocoa powder
140 ml boiling water
2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
150 g ground almonds (or 125 g plain flour)
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
144 g dextrose
3 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 160°C, fan-forced. Grease a 9-inch springform pan with a little oil and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Place the cocoa powder into a small bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water and vanilla extract until you have a smooth but still runny paste. Set aside to cool a little. In another small bowl, stir together the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.

Place the dextrose, olive oils and eggs into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer at high speed for about 3 minutes or until the mixture is pale, thick and aerated.

Pour in the cocoa mixture, beating until well incorporated then fold through the ground almond (or flour) mixture with a spatula until only just combined. The batter will be very liquid.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40-45 minutes (mine took 50 minutes and was still very wobbly but a skewer came out clean). The sides should be set and a cake tester should come out almost clean.

Allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes before carefully removing the tin. Can be eaten warm or cool, either way it will blow your mind! It is pretty rich though so this would easily serve 12, especially if served warm with ice cream. I served it to my boys with a dollop of sweet and creamy greek yoghurt as pictured.

NB. The cake appeared very light, spongy and wobbly at the 50 minute mark but I trusted the skewer coming out clean to tell me it was cooked. It collapsed considerably upon cooling but that is typical of cakes like this and it was incredibly moist and perfectly cooked. So keep an eye on it and don't over-bake!


Secret Recipe Club

18 comments:

  1. This looks so yummy. I've never thought to use different nuts in place of almond meal, but I love the idea!!

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  2. Luscious! Olive oil cakes are amazing, aren't they?

    Love everything about this one....

    Have a wonderful Reveal Monday, hope you enjoy the collection of recipes...

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  3. You absolutely can't go wrong with chocolate....YUM!!!

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  4. Olive oil cake has such a great texture. I've had a plain one before, but I love that yours has chocolate in it! Great pick this month :)

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  5. Sounds super delicious and looks very moist! I love cakes like that :) Happy Reveal Day!

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  6. This looks so rich and delicious!
    Renee - Kudos Kitchen

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  7. I would be oh, so happy to come to dinner at YOUR house and be served a slice of this cake for dessert. Just in chase you wanted to know. :) Great SRC pick!

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  8. Such a delicious looking cake! It looks so moist, great pick this month!

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  9. I so rarely think of olive oil when it comes to baking sweet things, but I really need to try it sometime.

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  10. Your presentation is just lovely, and I love your idea of the "ABC" nuts! Happy reveal day!

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  11. I've made Nigella Lawson's and it's insanely moist and chocolatey. GREAT SRC pick this month. Love!

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  12. I've wanted to experiment with olive oil in a baking application - this sounds delicious.

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  13. I haven't baked with olive oil before. This cake looks amazing! I am sure to try it out soon if I get something like this.

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  14. Yum! I never would have thought to make chocolate cake with olive oil. So it's now definitely healthy, right? ;)

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  15. Susan, this looks absolutely heavenly. I've seen that Nigella recipe pop up in a few places and have often meant to try it. Now you've convinced me I absolutely have to make it. Gorgeous photo too.
    Sue :-)

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  16. I'm so glad you chose this recipe as it's one of my favourite. It's absolutely delicious and I always get repeat requests for this one! I didn't know you could use different nuts so that's a a handy tip. Happy belated SRC reveal day!

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  17. That looks elegant and delicious!! GREAT choice this month - and what beautiful photos!!

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  18. Yum! It looks so decadent. I've been meaning to try an olive oil chocolate cake for some time now, and this one looks like a winner! Great choice!

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