After almost a month of NO sugar, I cannot tell you how excited I was to make and eat this cake for my Mum’s birthday. For a week I’ve been planning to make a decadent flourless chocolate cake – but with a twist.
Since Nick and I have gone Paleo with our diet (no dairy, no grains, no sugar – oh, and we gave up caffeine, too!) we’ve been losing weight faster and more effortlessly than ever before in our lives (we both had about 10-15kg to shed), and we’re feeling calm, energized and strong.
Honestly, after the first few days, I’ve felt awesome, and, apart from the occasional ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ thought, I haven’t missed anything we’ve cut out of our diet. We eat heaps of quality meat, veggies, salads, fruit, nuts and fats (mmmm, avacado and coconut…). And no processed food.
However, as far as I’m concerned, birthdays are a perfect chance to have a treat, so I put together this beauty! It’s still mostly Paleo, as there are no grains or dairy in this.
{Note – there is ghee in the frosting, but because that’s pure milk fat and has either no or very, very small/trace amounts of lactose and casein, I count that as dairy-free in my diet. I am sensitive to dairy, but ghee doesn’t cause me any problems. You’ll just have to leave the frosting off if you want this to be 100% purely dairy-free. Or perhaps try making it with coconut cream, though it won’t hold its shape like this one.}
The recipes for both the cake and the frosting are after the gallery of eye-candy below. Oh yeah.
Flourless Chocolate Cake
My recipe is based on this one with some variations.
Ingredients
- 50g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder
- 80ml (1/3 cup) hot water
- 2 tsp boiling water
- 1 x 100g pkt almond meal
- 100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
- 3 eggs, separated
- Melted reduced-fat dairy spread, to grease
ÂMethod
I followed the exact method listed here, except I didn’t put in the coffee. Two of our family are anti-coffee, so I didn’t want to risk any coffee flavour in this cake.
Ghee ‘Buttercream’ Frosting
My recipe is based on this one, but heavily modified, as my Mum doesn’t like coconut anything. {Geez, we sound like a family of food neurotics!}
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup icing sugar
- 1/4 cup goodÂqualityÂcocoa
- Approximately 3 heaped dessertspoons of ghee
- A dash of vanilla extract {not that fake horrible ‘essence’ stuff}
- A dash of water, just enough to reach the right consistency
Method
- Measure and combine the icing sugar and cocoa
- Add a dash of vanilla extract
- Add the ghee and mix with electric beaters on high
- Add in a dash of water. Mix again for a moment and see if you need to add more. You’ll be able to tell because when the right amount of water is added, the mixture will transition from pebbly to smooth.
- Done! Add to your cooled cake, and lick the beaters.
Honestly, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with this, as you can add little amounts of sugar/cocoa/ghee/water as you see fit to alter the consistency until it’s perfect.
Garnish
Ingredients
- Strawberries
- Lindt Excellence Dark Chocolate – Strawberry Intense {This chocolate is DA BOMB – my FAVE chocolate ever. Oh my god how I adore it. Followed closely by the same brand in Blueberry. *Wipes drool from corners of mouth*.}
Method
- Unwrap your chocolate, turn it over, and use a large, sharp knife to scrape chocolate peelings from the back of the block. Sprinkle very gently over frosted cake.
- Slice up one strawberry fan-style, and garnish. A few more on the side don’t hurt!
And you’re done!
This is a beautiful, moist flourless chocolate cake – and not too sweet. I think that it would be a little too bland without the frosting, but together (especially with the extra edge given by the chocolate peelings) it was awesome. I’d love to hear from someone who tries both a coffee-free and coffee-inclusive version, as I’m imagining the coffee gives it an extra flavour dimension.
Also, I had NO idea we had a heart-shaped springform pan in the cupboard until today! Shows how much I bake, eh? I’m actually hoping to change that, because with our new way of eating, I refuse to buy shop bakery goods, so it’ll be a whole new world of recipes for me to make and explore – as someone who’s not much of a cook/baker, it’s actually got me quite excited!
I willÂDEFINITELY be making this again in future… though Nick doesn’t really fancy chocolate cake, and his birthday is next weekend, so I’ll have to search out another as-paleo-as-possible cake for him.
Oh, what a shame!!
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