Food & Wine
Avocado chocolate cake
Eating raw all the time isn’t recommended, however, incorporating a little raw food into your diet every day will do you a world of good. This chocolate cake made with avocado is lush, lavish and completely guilt free.
Ingredients:
Base layer
- ½ cup almonds (soak in water overnight and drain before use)
- ½ cup sunflower seeds (soak in water overnight and drain before use)
- 2 cups desiccated coconut
- a generous pinch of sea salt
- Zest of 2 limes
- 2 tbsp lime juice (or lemon) – keep the rest for later
- 3 tbsp coconut syrup
- 3 tbsp maple syrup (or honey)
Middle layer (salted chocolate)
- 500g pitted dates (soaked for a least 4 hours, and drained)
- 60g cacao butter
- 100g cacao powder
- a big pinch of sea salt
- a handful of raw cacao nibs (optional)
Top layer (avocado and banana cream)
- 2 ripe avocados
- 1 ripe banana
- lime juice left over from the base
- a handful of cashews (soaked)
- 3 tbsp honey
- 50g coconut oil, melted
Method:
- To make the base, blitz the nuts and seeds in a food processor until you get a fine crumby texture and then transfer to a large bowl. Do the same with the coconut.
- Mix all the ingredients until you get a sticky doughy texture. You will have to do this with your hands as it’s too thick for a spoon. It needs to be sticky to make a solid base for your cake, so if you’re substituting the syrups with sugar, you’ll need to add some water.
- Press the mixture firmly into your cake tin and make sure it is reasonably flat. Pop it in the freezer while you prepare the other layers.
- To make the middle layer, melt the cacao butter in a bain marie.
- Blend the dates in a food processor into a paste.
- Add the melted butter and cacao powder to the dates and mix well in the food processor.
- Once smooth, pour/spread the mixture onto your base, tap it flat, and sprinkle with the cacao nibs. Place back in the freezer.
- To make the top layer, mix everything except the coconut oil in a blender on high speed until smooth.
- Once blended, add the coconut oil (this will help keep the cream solid at a chilled temperature).
- Pour the mixture on top of the chocolate layer, shake flat, decorate (optional) and place back in the freezer for an hour before you serve.
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