I've tinkered with the original recipe and I may tinker with it some more, but this is already coming out a treat. I mean that literally. A chocolate cake that I can eat is a huge treat; and this is genuinely chocolatey and has a moist, almost fudgey texture and even a trace of that classic top-crust that brownies get. Mmm.
No-added-sugar chocolate cake
100g/ 4oz chopped pitted dates
1 teabag
75g/3oz No 1 baking mix
25g/1oz pure cocoa powder
100g/4oz butter or margarine
2 medium eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
Generous pinch of salt
50g/2oz finely chopped very dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
The previous night, make a mug of plain black tea (NB no milk) and pour it over the finely-chopped dates in a heatproof bowl. Leave to soak overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/Gas mark 4. Grease a sponge cake tin or similar (I used my wonderful new nonstick silicone baking tin from Lakeland - check it out, they're tremendous). If you know that your tin tends to stick, line with a disc of baking paper or greaseproof as well, as the mixture you're going to make is on the gooey side.
Puree the dates and the remaining tea, using a blender if possible, then add to the butter in a mixing bowl. If you don't have a blender you'll need to sieve them, which could be hard work. Beat the pureed dates and the butter together. It may be simpler to do this with a blender as well (pausing frequently to scrape down), or use a food processor if you have one. I used one of those handheld blender gadgets and it did a terrific job.
Don't be put-off, incidentally, by how weird the date-and-butter mixture looks. They aren't exactly natural companions (one being fatty and the other pretty watery) and they won't cream together the way butter and sugar would do. In fact the mixture may very well curdle and look completely revolting at this stage. Ignore it if so and persevere.
Beat in the two eggs and the vanilla essence, then the salt (adding vanilla essence and salt is a really good way to improve the flavour of any chocolate dish made with cocoa). Now sieve the cocoa powder, cinnamon and baking powder together and mix them into the wet mixture. Add the baking mix and stir that in well. Finally add the chopped dark chocolate and mix in.
You'll have a fairly sloppy cake mix, noticably wetter than the classic "soft dropping consistency". Don't panic, it's okay for it to look like this.
Spoon into the cake tin and level off, then bake for 30-35 minutes.
Either serve warm from the oven as a dessert, or turn out and allow to cool, and eat as a cake.
When warm, the middle is quite gooey and moist. I suspect with a bit more tinkering I might be able to get this to do that "self-saucing" trick and have a molten bottom layer.
The dates have a high-enough sugar content that the result is only slightly less sweet than a conventional recipe would be; but it's all slowly-digested fructose (not to mention having the considerable fibre whack of dates) so not so nasty for the diabetics!
Edited, February 4 2016, to add; this also keeps well! As in, almost a week in an airtight tin. It gets steadily gooey-er and tudgey-er with time but doesn't dry out, go stale or grow grey furry fuzz. It's a winner!
No-added-sugar chocolate cake
100g/ 4oz chopped pitted dates
1 teabag
75g/3oz No 1 baking mix
25g/1oz pure cocoa powder
100g/4oz butter or margarine
2 medium eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
Generous pinch of salt
50g/2oz finely chopped very dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
The previous night, make a mug of plain black tea (NB no milk) and pour it over the finely-chopped dates in a heatproof bowl. Leave to soak overnight.
Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/Gas mark 4. Grease a sponge cake tin or similar (I used my wonderful new nonstick silicone baking tin from Lakeland - check it out, they're tremendous). If you know that your tin tends to stick, line with a disc of baking paper or greaseproof as well, as the mixture you're going to make is on the gooey side.
Puree the dates and the remaining tea, using a blender if possible, then add to the butter in a mixing bowl. If you don't have a blender you'll need to sieve them, which could be hard work. Beat the pureed dates and the butter together. It may be simpler to do this with a blender as well (pausing frequently to scrape down), or use a food processor if you have one. I used one of those handheld blender gadgets and it did a terrific job.
Don't be put-off, incidentally, by how weird the date-and-butter mixture looks. They aren't exactly natural companions (one being fatty and the other pretty watery) and they won't cream together the way butter and sugar would do. In fact the mixture may very well curdle and look completely revolting at this stage. Ignore it if so and persevere.
Beat in the two eggs and the vanilla essence, then the salt (adding vanilla essence and salt is a really good way to improve the flavour of any chocolate dish made with cocoa). Now sieve the cocoa powder, cinnamon and baking powder together and mix them into the wet mixture. Add the baking mix and stir that in well. Finally add the chopped dark chocolate and mix in.
You'll have a fairly sloppy cake mix, noticably wetter than the classic "soft dropping consistency". Don't panic, it's okay for it to look like this.
 |
| Uncooked cake mix, rather wet and shiny looking |
Either serve warm from the oven as a dessert, or turn out and allow to cool, and eat as a cake.
 |
| Resulting cake. The top's a bit cracked, it wouldn't win a WI prize for presentation, but it tasted fine |
When warm, the middle is quite gooey and moist. I suspect with a bit more tinkering I might be able to get this to do that "self-saucing" trick and have a molten bottom layer.
The dates have a high-enough sugar content that the result is only slightly less sweet than a conventional recipe would be; but it's all slowly-digested fructose (not to mention having the considerable fibre whack of dates) so not so nasty for the diabetics!
 |
| Chocolate cake... |
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