Recipe: Chocolate Cake With Olive Oil

Baking is a tricky thing. It requires precision and dedication. I mean, you need to love baking to be a good baker. But since most people lack the dedication needed to bake a three tiered cake, I try and generate recipes which are easy to follow and implement. Like this chocolate cake with olive oil. It tastes great and it’s perfect for those who have dietary restrictions. To be honest, the olive oil doesn’t make it prominently healthier but its definitely tasty as hell!

Ingredients

150 ml olive oil + extra for smearing
50 grams good-quality cocoa powder (sifted)
125 ml boiling water
2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
150 grams ground almonds (or 125g plain flour / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour)
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
200 grams caster sugar
3 large eggs

Method

Preheat your oven to 170°C/gas mark 3/325ºF.
Grease a 22 or 23 cm/ 9inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
Quota and examine the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whip in the boiling water until you have a smooth, paste.
Whisk in the vanilla extract, and then set aside to cool a little.
In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.
Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment and beat together energetically for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and condensed cream.
Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.
Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin.
Bake for 40-45 minutes.
Let it cool for 10 minutes still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and pull it out of the tin.
Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.