Quinoa Chocolate Cake
When you lead a gluten free lifestyle, it's a mighty fine day when you get to eat seriously good chocolate cake; cake that isn't dry/resembles cardboard and is full of ingredients you are all too happy to ingest. I'm not a big baker, therefore I'm not a big cake eater. Let it be known however, that when it comes to anything chocolate, all bets are off!
This is quite honestly, the best chocolate cake recipe I've encountered (not bias, much).
It is made with cooked quinoa (rather than quinoa flour) and is therefore moist and dense and has an intense chocolate flavour (which will suit you if you love your dark chocolate as much as I do). If you prefer chocolate a little less intense perhaps try with a little less cacao.
You'll need:
2/3 cup quinoa
1 1/3 cup water
4 eggs
1/3 cup coconut milk
Seeds of one vanilla pod (or 1 teaspoon vanilla essence)
3/4 cup organic butter, melted (you could use coconut oil though do know it will be more dense and heavy)
1 cup coconut sugar
1 cup cacao powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon celtic or himalayan salt
Rinse your quinoa thoroughly. Bring the quinoa and water to a gentle boil on your stove. Cover, reduce heat and let simmer gently for twelve minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the covered saucepan on the stove, lid on, for a further ten minutes. Fluff with a fork and let it sit to cool, lid off.
Preheat your oven to 180c/350F. Grease an 8 inch (approx) cake pan. It may pay to line the bottom with baking paper too.
Combine the milk, eggs and vanilla in a blender. Add 2 cups of cooked quinoa and butter and blend until smooth.
Combine the coconut sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cacao in a bowl. Add the contents of the blender and mix well. Pour into your cake tin.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 35-45 minutes (I checked at 35 and it was ready) or until a skewer comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and cool in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack.
I served this with the most delectable Coconut, Chia and Cashew Cream which I'll be posting on my blog next week. It would also be DELISH with a big dollop of double cream.
Eat the cake within a week or slice into portions and pop into the freezer for a rainy/sunny day.
ps if you're looking for a seriously healthy chocolate icing recipe then look no further than our very own recipe right here.
So tell me, how do you find it? Is it not the best chocolate cake recipe, ever?
