Lifestyle - Baking Chocolate Olive Oil cake (Gluten & Dairy Free)

Hey lovelies,

I haven't written a baking post in yonks, as truth be known I haven't done very much baking, due to my son currently having to follow a strict restrictive diet for health reasons, it just didn't seem right to bake a cake he couldn't eat, so I made it my mission to find one he could eat, and was chocolate his favourite.

That's where this Nigella Chocolate olive oil cake comes in to play, I was sceptical at first could a wheat and dairy free chocolate cake actually taste nice, but you know what it tastes amazing and is a huge hit with all my family. what I love about this recipe is its really easy to make and doesn't use loads of fancy expensive ingredients just store cupboard products the only thing I had to go out and buy was the ground Almonds.

Ingredients;

• 150 millilitres regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
• 50 grams good-quality cocoa powder (sifted)
• 125 millilitres boiling water
• 2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
• 150 grams ground almonds 
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 200 grams caster sugar
• 3 large eggs

Method;

1. Preheat your oven to 170°C/gas mark 3/325ºF. Grease a 22 or 23 cm/ 9inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
2. Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
3. In another bowl, combine the ground almonds with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.
4. Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale, aerated and thickened cream.
5. Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond mixture.
6.  Pour the liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
7. Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then carefully remove from tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

So if you or a family member have wheat or dairy allergies and miss Chocolate cake in your life I 100% recommend giving this cake a go.