Chocolate Olive Oil Cake- Divine Decadence Gluten-Free and Non Dairy

Faithful followers (love you guys!) of this blog saw (and lots of you made) the Meyer Lemon Olive Oil cake I posted a couple of weeks ago, and since then, I have been experimenting with other cakes with olive oil. I'm not going to lie to you, I am a huge fan of butter. And most non-dairy cakes really miss in the taste, and moistness department when there is no buttery richness. But olive oil adds a wonderful taste, and cakes made with it get better and better with age (by age I mean the next day, as none of these cakes have made it beyond that point). Don't use the strongest extra-virgin olive oil for this, it will have too strong a taste, but if that is the only kind you have on hand, use 1/2 cup olive oil and 1/4 cup vegetable oil.

This delicious cake comes from Nigella Lawson, I added my own glaze, and served it for Valentine's Day. You can make this with almond flour (ground almonds) or with regular flour if you can't or don't want to use nuts. Keep the almond flour version in your back pocket for passover-- coming up sooner than you think!

You can make this in a regular cake pan if you are brave, but a springform makes the un-molding less un-nerving. Make it with the glaze, or just dust with confectioner's sugar before serving. Raspberries and Strawberries on the side are perfection.

Nigella's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake 

• ⅔ cup regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
• 6 tablespoons good-quality unsweetened cocoa (sifted)
• ½ cup boiling water
• 2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups almond meal (or 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour)
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 cup superfine sugar
• 3 large eggs

• Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 325ºF. Grease a 9 inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
  2. Measure and sift the unsweetened cocoa into a bowl and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
  3. In another smallish bowl, combine the almond meal (or flour) with the baking soda and pinch of salt.
  4. Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until light and creamy 
  5. 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 add in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.
  6. Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very center, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
  7. Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or enjoy while still warm. 
  
  
  CHOCOLATE GLAZE
• 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate melted
• 1/3 cup soy creamer (or cream)
• 1/4 cup light karo syrup
• 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract.
• Mix well, pour and spread over cake