Gluten Free – Sugar Free

This is quite a big recipe; it’ll easily fill a 250 x 300mm rectangular baking tin or two 24cm cake rings. You can divide it in half if you wish to get a single 24cm cake ring quantity. Great recipe for that guilt free cake you want to bake that has no sugar and zero gluten; is healthy and a Banting, Zero Carb treat! It’s pretty versatile too; you can add blueberries instead of strawberries, and any nuts you desire instead of the almonds I’ve used here. Give it a go; it’s very simple to throw together.

The raw honey used in this recipe if available from both our Online Store and In House. We have Blue Gum and Sunflower Honey, both raw and unfiltered. Perfect for natural sweetening. I used raw Sunflower Honey in this recipe.

Other ingredients used in this recipe available through us are Free Range Eggs, Chickpea Flour, Frozen Strawberries and Coconut Flakes.

Ingredients

• Free Range Eggs 12
• Raw Honey ¾ cup
• Butter 200g
• Dark Chocolate 75% 200g
• Almond Flour 3 cups
• Chickpea Flour 4 tablespoons
• Cocoa 1 ½ cups
• Baking Powder 3 tsp
• Frozen Strawberries 500g
• Raw Honey ½ cup
• Flaked Almonds Couple of handfuls
• Cinnamon Powder Just a little dusting
• Coconut Flakes Couple of handfuls (optional)

Method:

1. Melt the butter and chocolate over a double boiler / in a mixing bowl over a gently steaming pot.
2. In a separate pan, add your strawberries and ½ cup of raw honey and bring to a strong simmer until they strawberries get really syrupy and glossy. You’ll still have about ½ a cup of liquid in the pan – that’s good, you want that juice with the strawberries. Set aside.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients into a separate mixing bowl.
4. Break your eggs into a bowl and begin to beat them fast using either an electric hand blender or food mixer. You want to get as much air as possible into the eggs, so let them beat for a while (10 minutes or so). Eventually you’ll get them to become almost ribbon like and creamy white. That’s the stage you want to achieve.
5. You can slightly warm up the ¾ cup of honey and slowly add it into the creamy egg mixture until all incorporated.
6. Now add your melted butter and chocolate into the egg mixture until incorporated. You can also slow your beating down to about half speed.
7. Now it’s time to add your dry ingredients. You can add them in slowly using the electric beater, but I prefer to pour the airy egg mixture into a stainless steel / or any decent mixing bowl and using a silicon cake spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients into the eggy chocolate mixture carefully. You want to keep it all light and airy as much as possible. Look, it’s not a train smash if you don’t but trust me if you can, it gives a better result. Good baking loves air!
8. So once you’ve mixed it all together, you’ll get this chocolatey airy, gooey mass! Here’s where I add in all the strawberries and juice from the pan. Fold it all in.
9. Pour your mixture into a prepared (i.e. greased and lined) baking tin.
10. Your oven needs to be preheated to 180 degrees celsius.
11. Sprinkle a couple of handfuls of flaked almonds over the mixture, dust a bit of cinnamon and put into oven, bake for about 35-40 minutes – check to see if cooked through by inserting a clean knife or skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean and steamy, it’s done. The almonds should be nice and toasted too. 
12. It’s ready to set aside and cool. You can sprinkle coconut flakes on top now too if you wish, but it’s not necessary.
13. So I like to top it with a whipped nut buttercream, comprising of soaked almonds, honey, melted chocolate and coconut oil. All blended together and just added in spoonful dollops to the top of the cake, and spread gently with the back of a dessert spoon. This buttercream will set at room temperature, delicious and sharp flavour with the 75%

Recipe: Almond Nut Buttercream

• 200g Afrikoa 75% dark chocolate (or any dark chocolate that contains no sugar), 150g coconut oil, 100g raw honey (I used sunflower), 350g whole almonds (soaked in water overnight – water level just above the almonds).
• Melt the chocolate, coconut oil and honey in a bowl over some steam/ hot water.
• Blend the nuts, water and melted chocolate mix all together in a blender until smooth and creamy. Use a tamper if you have one for your blender – this will help in getting the nuts and mixture to blend well.
• Easy and delicious – now spread your delicious buttercream onto the top of the cake.

14. Gosh, did I actually say this cake was Guilt Free? It might change the way you look at cake forever! Enjoy.