THICK CHOCO-COCO CAKE (GF, V)

When I was a little girl my mum used to make a chocolate and vanilla cake I loved so much. I remember myself eating it for breakfast with my huge cup of tea.
Did you say, “for breakfast”? mmmmm...Yes, I did.
I don’t know if you are familiar with Italian breakfast, but the typical one is milk or caffè-latte (milk with a splash of coffee) with cookies or a homemade cake. Yes, lots and lots of sugars! I know. 

A big cup of oatmeals with plant milk, a green smoothie or a slice of wholegrain bread with avocado is way healthier, but you know, changing habits is never easy and changing Italian’s mind about breakfast is almost impossible: they want their cookies or a slice of a cake with their milk. Stop.

I was saying then that that cake was delicious and what I loved the most was the fact that it was thick, very think. I love cake to be thick if you missed something!
It was made with all purpose flour, sugar, eggs and butter, like all the “normal” cakes.
Unfortunately I found out to be celiac height years ago and my mum has never made it since. Sigh.

But there is a good news! I finally found the perfect balance of ingredients to make it gluten-free and way healthier then the original one: no butter, no refined sugar and no eggs. Yeah! And I promise, it is D E L I C I O U S! This is one of those recipes I really urge you to make. You can’t fail. You can only enjoy!

Difference between cacao powder and cocoa powder

You can basically get three different powders from grinding chocolate beans:
The most nutritious is raw cacao powder, which retains all the antioxidants cacao is rich in and also its very high content of magnesium, the “anti-stress mineral” -it has a relaxant effect in the body-. Raw cacao powder is obtained by unroasted chocolate beans.

Then you can get natural cocoa powder, obtained from roasted chocolate beans. After grinding it is not further processed and keeps the acidity chocolate has and it has a milder brown color. It is fat free and sugar free. Most of the beneficial benefits of cacao are lost, but it still keeps the natural strong chocolate flavor.

The last and the worst one is the dutch processed cocoa powder, which is treated with an alkalizing agent to reduce the acidity -making it slightly sweeter- and to modify its color -it becomes deep brown-. This process gives it a milder and more palatable flavor, but remember, this is far away from the natural one!

So, which one should you use?

To make this cake, go for the natural cocoa powder. It doesn’t make sense to use the raw cacao powder and then cooking it. And please, stay away from the dutch processed one from now on!
Use the raw cacao powder to make raw teats or raw chocolate (recipe coming soon!).

THICK CHOCO-COCO CAKE (GF, V)

Make a 7-inch (18 cm) diameter cake

Ingredients:
1 cup (150 gr) of brown rice flour
2/3 cup (100 gr) buckwheat flour
1/3 cup (50 gr) shredder coconut
1/2 cup (50 gr) natural cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 generous pinch of salt
1/3 cup (60 ml) coconut oil
1 cup (240 ml) maple syrup (or raw honey)
3/4 cup (180 ml)water (or any unsweetened milk of your choice -nut, seeds, rice, soy)
1 tbs unpasteurized apple cider vinegar

Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).

- In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add shredded coconut and whisk to combine.
- In a medium saucepan, melt the coconut oil. Add the maple syrup, water (or milk of your choice) and whisk to combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk to remove any lumps. Add the vinegar and whisk quickly to incorporate.
- Pour the batter into the cake tin.
- Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the corner comes out clean, 40 to 50 minutes.
After 30 minutes you might want to protect the top of the cake with an aluminum foil to prevent it to burn on the surface.