Flourless Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake

Everyone needs a super simple chocolate cake recipe cake up their sleeve for good days, bad days, entertaining, or just cos. This one is dense, fudgy and rich, without being overwhelming. The espresso and Toberlone are fun little additions to highlight the cacao-ness of it all, but you can easily replace them if you like.

Dress is up any way you like, but I will vouch for it standing alone in its glory, simply dusted in cacao powder and served with cream. The Toblerone came about because I ran out of dark chocolate to make up the quantities, but honestly, the milk chocolate and nougat lightens up the intensity of the cacao and dark chocolate. Just a tad. Maybe not at all. But it’s good to be flexible with what you have, no? This one is also gluten free, making it handy for entertaining.

Ingredients

180g dark chocolate, chopped

60g Toblerone, chopped

180g unsalted butter, cubed

40g cacao (not cocoa) powder, sifted

50ml espresso (you can also substitute for the same volume of strong instant coffee. If you don’t want to use coffee, you could try swapping it with olive oil, orange juice or strong green tea).

6 eggs, separated

1 pinch caster sugar

10ml white vinegar

100g brown sugar

30g caster sugar

200g hazelnut meal

Method

Preheat your oven to 180c. Oil and line a 25cm springform tin and et aside. Place a clean, heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water (be sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl) and add the chopped chocolate and butter. Stir to combine as they melt, and gradually mix in the cacao powder until combined. Add the coffee, combine well and set aside.

In a stand mixer or using an electric hand mixer, add the egg whites, a generous pinch of caster sugar and the vinegar. Whisk until soft peaks form, then place into a clean mixing bowl and set aside. Place the 100g brown sugar and 30g caster sugar in the mixer with the yolks and whisk until pale.

Once the chocolate has cooled a bit, gradually fold in the egg yolk mixture in batches, until combined. Do the same with the hazelnut meal. Finally, lightly fold in the egg whites until just combined. You don’t want to work it too hard, otherwise you’ll knock out all the air you’ve worked hard to put in there. Add a good pinch of sea salt and briefly fold it in.

Pour the batter into the lined cake tin and bake for 40 minutes, or until the centre is still fudgy in the centre, but the outside feels just set. Set aside for 15-20 minutes, then release from the tin, inverted and set aside to cool.

Once cool, dust with cacao powder and serve with some whipped cream and a little lemon zest.

Sweet Potato Chocolate Cake

I feel like...

• #BringBackTheClassics 2
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• Gluten Free 2

As seen on Everyday Gourmet Season 8 with Justine Schofield. Watch the segment HERE!

Say what? Yes, the secret ingredient in this chocolately, fudgy little number is SWEET POTATO! So what does it do? Well, instead of using regular flour and heaps of refined sugar, sweet potatoes add natural sweetness, a rich texture and a heap of vitamins, minerals and beneficial fibre to this cake...so you can have your goodness and eat it too! 

A tweaked version of my friend and nutritionist Tara Leong's recipe, it's super simple, as well as gluten (if you use gluten free baking powder) and dairy free. As she would note, however...just because it's healthy doesn't mean you should eat the whole thing! Nutrient dense foods also come with a decent serve of calories, so enjoy it with a little moderation! 

Ingredients

1 large sweet potato, roasted in its skin and slightly cooled (around 1kg)

85g dark chocolate

3 free range eggs

1 1/2 cups coconut sugar (brown sugar also works)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup olive oil

1/2 cup raw cacao powder (not cocoa powder...you want that bitter chocolately kick!)

1 1/2 tsp gluten free baking powder (regular is also fine if this isn't a crucial dietary)

3 tsp cinnamon

A good pinch of sea salt

200g almond meal

Raw chocolate glaze

1 cup raw cacao powder

1 cup water

6 tbsp runny honey or maple syrup (raw cacao can be bitter, so you can add more to taste)

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup olive oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 180c, then grease and line a 23cm springform or a deep loaf tin with baking paper. Slice the cooked sweet potato in half and scoop out the flesh, transferring it into a bowl. Mash the sweet potato roughly and set aside. Bring a small saucepan half filled with water to the boil. Once boiling, place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl and carefully place on top of the saucepan. Once melted, remove from heat and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla and oil, then slowly add the sweet potato, melted chocolate and mix until just combined. Sift in the cocoa, baking powder, then add the cinnamon and salt. Lastly, fold in the almond meal in thirds until everything is incorporated. Transfer the contents of the cake to the lined baking tin and bake for 65 minutes or until a toothpick when inserted in the centre, comes out clean (as it is a very fudgy cake and not all sweet potatoes are the same size, it can sometimes take a little longer, just keep cooking until the toothpick comes out clean!). Once baked, remove from oven and set aside to completely cool before icing. 

For the ganache, combine the cacao powder, water, maple syrup (you ca also use honey or rice malt syrup), vanilla and cinnamon over a medium high heat, whisking until the mixture thickens. If the mixture is already very thick, add a little water to loosen it, a tablespoon at a time. Once thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove the ganache from heat and vigorously whisk in the olive oil until smooth and glossy. For a mirror glaze finish, add in an extra tablespoon or two of iced water at the end and whisk vigorously again until combined. Once the cake is cool, remove it from the tin, then glaze and decorate. 

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Vegan Chocolate Mousse

I feel like...

• #BringBackTheClassics 2
• Apple crumble 1
• As Seen On TV 5
• Asian Food 3
• Aussie Classics 2
• Avocado 1
• Bacon 2
• Baking 8
• Beans 1
• Beef 2
• Beef Rendang 2
• Berries 1
• Butterbeans 1
• Cabbage 1
• Cake 6
• Carrot 2
• Cashew 1
• Caviar 1
• Chai 1
• Cheap 1
• Chez Dre 1
• Chicken 2
• Chickpea 1
• Chilli 2
• Chilli Oil 2
• Chinese 11
• Chocolate 3
• Coconut Crack Bars 1
• Comfort Food 4
• Coriander 1
• Curry 1
• Custard 1
• Dairy Free 1
• Dan Dan Noodles 1
• Dessert 3
• Dim Sum 1
• Dressing 1
• Drinks 1
• Dumplings 1
• Eas 1
• Easy Recipes 4
• Eat Your Weeds 1
• Egg 1
• Eggs 2
• Eggwhite 2
• Everyday Gourmet 1
• Floss 1
• Garlic 1
• Ginger 1
• Gluten Free 2

Instagram is a wonderful thing for inspiration. It's also terrible for creating unrealistic expectations about everything from diet to body image, but that's a conversation for another time. A dear friend and chef Sharon Salloum from Sydney's Almond Bar (if you haven't been, you really should) recently posted a vegan chocolate mousse she had made. Being a chef and then running into health issues is never ideal, but it happens more than you think. Having to change what we eat out of necessity does create an opportunity to explore new things however, and while I could never EVER be vegan, that isn't to say that recipes that don't involve animal products can't be delicious. Case in point, this extremely rich and velvety chocolate mousse. Chances are you already have most of these ingredients at home anyway, so why no, eh?

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 ripe avocado

1/2 frozen banana

2 tbs cacao powder

1 tbs vanilla protein powder (I used Tropeaka Lean Protein, but this isn't a sponsored post)

1 tsp maple syrup or rice malt syrup (you could use raw honey for a vegetarian option if you don't want to go fully fledged vegan)

1 pinch sea salt

1 tbs coconut yoghurt or almond milk (optional, if the ingredients get a bit too thick to blend)

Cacao nibs and other fun things, for garnish

Method

Throw all your mousse ingredients into a high speed blender. Blitz until smooth (here's a recipe where 'rustic' chunks of avo probably aren't so appealing). The frozen banana means the mousse is pretty much ready to eat out of the blender, but I recommend decanting it into a bowl and chilling it in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes or until ready to eat. Garnish with your favourite toppings and a little extra pinch of sea salt. 

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