We stay with great friends for a few days in early January each year, who live up in the Byron Hinterland in the town of Rosebank. It is just beautiful up there, with rolling green hills, tree-lined roads and friendly people. I always cook a couple of treats while we’re there for everyone, and one I did was a bit of an invention and similar to my gooey chocolate pudding, but more of a cake that you can serve as a decadent morning tea or dessert with custard. We opted for the latter for the final night’s dessert and Griffin, their eldest, declared it “the best gluten-free dessert ever”.
So there you have it, the first positive testimonial that hopefully makes it worth having a go!
This cake is dense and fudgey so you can easily have this serve 10-11 people but if you’re cooking for many, double it and bake in a large baking tray for half the time, and cut 25 squares instead.
Ingredients
- 130 g salted butter melted (use coconut oil or olive oil if wanting it to be dairy free)
- 100 g tapioca starch or arrowroot starch, watch out for sneaky 220 preservative in supermarket arrowroot!
- 50 g coconut flour or (⅓ cup + 1 heaped tbsp)
- 1 heaped tsp baking powder aluminium free
- 30 g desiccated coconut or (⅓ cup)
- 30 g cacao powder I use dutch processed cocoa for baking (or ⅓ cup)
- 100 g rapadura sugar / panela sugar or ½ cup
- 50-100 ml maple syrup depends on sweetness level you want
- 3 whole eggs
- 100 g dark chocolate chips 70%, or chopped dark chocolate chunks
- 100 g macadamia nuts rough chopped, I like to keep in big chunks!
Instructions
- Pre-heat your oven to 170°C, fan forced or 180°C/350°F if not fan forced.
- Line a tart tin or round cake pan of around 20cm diameter with baking paper or rub melted butter all over it and then dust that buttered tin with flour for a natural non stick technique.
- Melt butter, either in saucepan on low for a few minutes, or in your thermo-cooker for 2 minutes, high temp, speed 1.
- If using a thermo-cooker, add all ingredients leaving eggs to last and except choc chips and macadamias, and blend on speed 5, 5 seconds, then reverse speed 5 another 5 seconds. Then pour choc chips and macadamia nuts in and stir by hand to combine at the end. You can also follow this method if using a food processor or blender, by adding melted butter first, then following the rest and simply blending on high, scraping down after five seconds, then blending again for another five seconds, mixing the choc chips and macadamia chunks in at the end by hand.
- If mixing by hand, leave melted butter to the side in the pan for a minute.
- Whisk eggs and syrup / sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
- Add flours (sifted if they’re lumpy!), baking powder, desiccated coconut, cocoa powder and, finally, the melted butter, and mix by hand until lumps removed and a lovely, thick consistency.
- Once your batter is ready, how ever you got to this point, pour and scrap into the baking tin, and pop in the oven.
- Check the cake at 25mins. If it’s still a very wet skewer after 25 mins, bake another few minutes, otherwise pull it out – You want the edges a little bit bouncy to the touch but the middle a bit softer for your fudgy vibes.
- You’re done. All that’s left now is to gather your favourite people around a table with a cup of tea, to share it together.
Enjoy! And, if you make it, do tag me on Instagram @lowtoxlife so that I can see your creations!
Here’s to real treats and less fake weirdness for 2020!
Real Treats. Happy Bodies. Connected Souls.
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About the Author: Alexx Stuart
