16 Feb, 2021
Chocolate Cake
Since reducing the amount of sugar I eat my taste buds are much more attuned to overly sweet food. Don’t get me wrong, there is always a time and a place for a sickly sweet slice, but this recipe is the perfect combination of just sweet, just indulgent and just rich enough! The Oatly yogurt, cacao and date caramel icing is something I created recently and it will now become my go to icing, it’s a good balance of sweet and sharp and brings out the chocolatety flavours perfectly.
RecipesIngredients:
- 3 browning bananas
- 100g butter or vegan margarine
- 100ml olive oil
- 2 eggs
- 150g self raising flour
- 100g cacao powder
- 100g coconut sugar
For the icing:
- 100g pitted dates
- 100ml boiling water
- 50ml maple syrup
- 150g Oatly Yogurt
- 70g cacao powder
- Pinch Maldon salt
- Chopped nuts for topping
Method
- Preheat your oven to 180 fan.
- Mash the bananas as well as you can. You could also pop them in a food processor, that would make the batter and cake a smoother texture! But I don’t mind a few banana lumps if it means less food processor faff, it’s your choice. Then add the butter and olive oil and blend into the bananas. Whisk in the eggs and then add the flour, cacao powder and sugar. Stir gently together and tip into a lined cake tin, around 15cm diameter.
- Place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 20-25 minutes until it is cooked throughout, stick a knife in to check, it should come out fairly clean, a few little gooey bits on it’s totally fine.
- Leave your cake to cool completely, best to pop it in the fridge for a few hours!
- Now to make the icing. Place the dates in a bowl and cover with 100ml of boiling water. Add in the maple syrup and leave to stand for 10 minutes. Then tip this all into a food processor with the cacao powder and salt and blitz until it is completely smooth. It should be the texture of a thick caramel, perhaps on the lighter side! Place this in the fridge and leave to cool completely.
- Once the date caramel is cooled take it out of the fridge and add in the Oatly yogurt, I’m sure you can use any yogurt here but I haven’t experimented yet. I find Oatly has a firm texture and good sour edge that works well with the sweetness of the caramel. Combine them together to make your icing and leave it in the fridge until the cake is ready to be iced.
- Remove the cake from the tin and slice it in half through the centre. Leave the top to one side and smother half of the icing on the Botton half of the cake, then place the top of the cake back on and smoother the top with the rest of the icing. Add a sprinkling of sea salt and some freshly chopped nuts, pour yourself a cuppa and enjoy.
