Gluten Free Double Chocolate Cake

Now that I’m an official Vancity resident, Summerland, where I grew up, is only a zippy 4 hour drive away. This is in contrast to a 4 hour flight 🙂

This past weekend I was home for a surprise party for my parents who have just retired. My dad requested a dessert for Saturday night. Rather than re-make something I’ve already posted, I thought I’d try something new.

A number of HEAL clients have asked for a healthy cake recipe for birthday celebrations and other events. This cake is to. die. for. It’s not a fluffy angel food cake type cake, I will say. I think it’s better. It’s incredibly moist and you won’t feel icky after eating it!

This cake is:

Gluten free
Dairy free
Vegan
Grain free
Paleo friendly
High protein
High fiber
Refined sugar free

Tips about making this cake:

It is fragile, and mishandling it will result in it breaking
I actually used real sweet potatoes, not yams (yams are orange, sweet potatoes are more beige), but I’m pretty sure you could use either

This recipe was inspired by Deliciously Ella.

Prep Time:

15 mins

Cook Time:

45 mins

Total Time:

60 mins

Serves:

12-16

Ingredients:

Cake

3 cups almond meal/flour
5 small sweet potatoes (or yams) or 2.5 large
¼ cup maple syrup
11 pitted or 1 cup Medjool dates (I like Natural Delights)
¾ cup water
¼ cup raw cacao powder
1 TBSP cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract
sprinkling of sea salt

Icing

1 cup coconut cream (this was the solid part in a full fat can of coconut milk)
1 medium avocado
3 TBSP raw cacao powder
¼ cup maple syrup
11 pitted or 1 cup Medjool dates

Topping

2 cups fresh raspberries, or any berries

Directions:

Put a large pot of water on the stove to boil.
Peel the sweet potatoes or yams and once water is boiling, place them in water.
Boil for about 15 minutes, or until they’re almost falling apart.
Meanwhile, mix all the dry ingredients together (almond meal, raw cacao powder, cinnamon and sea salt).
In a separate bowl, place all the icing ingredients in the food processor and blend until very well mixed. Then set aside, in fridge, until later.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Clean the food processor and add the maple syrup, dates, water, vanilla extract and the cooked sweet potatoes once ready.
Blend for 1-2 minutes, until very well mixed.
Place all the wet ingredients in the bowl with the dry and mix with a spoon until well mixed.
Grease two round cake pans with coconut oil (I used 2 cheesecake springform pans - one was a tiny bit smaller, but it didn’t matter).
Place ½ the batter in each pan and bake for 26 minutes.
When it’s done, it will still be a little gooey on the inside of the cake, but that’s ok.
Let it cool for about 10 minutes, and then slide a knife around the edges of the pan, loosening the cake from the pan and remove the sides.
Then, gently loosen the edges of the bottom of the cake from the pan.
Using a cooling rack, or even a plate, flip each cake over to remove from the pan and continue to let cook. BE CAREFUL - IT CAN BREAK EASILY!
Once cool, apply half of the icing on the top of one of the pieces of cake, and then top with your berries, around the edge and some in the middle too (really as many as you like)
Then gently place the 2nd piece of cake on top, and spread the remaining half of the icing on top.
Top with more berries, and enjoy!