Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with Strawberry Sauce
This is a favorite dessert in our house! I like to vary how I make it by changing up the presentation. Sometimes I make a strawberry sauce like in this recipe, other times I use my drizzly coconut caramel sauce to pour over the top, and sometimes I simply sprinkle it with powdered sugar and serve with fresh berries. No matter how you serve it, it is delicious. The original recipe, before I adapted it to meet my dietary needs and added my toppings was from Nigella Lawson. Watch me speak about about alternative sweeteners and demo how to make this cake here!
Ingredients:
6 Tbsp. organic cacao powder, sifted
½ cup boiling water (you will not use all the water)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups almond flour
½ tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 cup coconut sugar
2/3 cup olive oil
3 eggs
1lb. organic strawberries, fresh or frozen
¼ -1/3 cup Allulose or sweetener of choice
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. While oven is preheating, grease a 9” springform pan with cooking spray and line the base with parchment paper.
Measure and sift the cacao powder into a small bowl and whisk in boiling water until you have a smooth, slightly runny paste. You will not need to use all the water to achieve this. Once you have reached this point, add vanilla extract, whisk, and set aside to cool.
In a slightly larger bowl, combine the almond flour, with the baking soda and a pinch of salt. Set this aside.
Put the coconut sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer using the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes until you have a pale, aerated and thickened cream.
Turn the speed down to low and pour in the cacao mixture, beating until all is incorporated.
Next, slowly add the almond flour mixture, scraping side of bowl as needed just until all combined.
Pour batter into prepared pan and place in middle of preheated oven.
Bake for 37-40 minutes or until the sides are set and the very center, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come out mostly clean with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
While cake is baking, place strawberries, lemon juice and 1/4 cup sweetener into a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat. Water will release from berries and you will simmer for about 10 minutes if frozen or 20 minutes if fresh. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes before blending. You can blend to a pourable sauce or leave it with chinks of fruit. Sauce will thicken as it cools. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.
Let cake cool for 10 minutes on wire rack, still in the pan. After 10 minutes, release the sides of the cake pan and allow to cool completely.
Serve with strawberry sauce
*Also great with with fresh berries and vanilla ice cream or with the drizzly coconut caramel sauce on my site!