Olive Oil Chocolate Cake
This recipe makes a cake for six to eight people to share.
Ingredients
⅔ cup regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
6 tablespoons good-quality unsweetened cocoa (sifted)
½ cup boiling water
2 teaspoons best quality vanilla extract
1 ½ cups almond meal
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch of salt
1 cup superfine sugar
3 large eggs
Method
Preheat your oven to 325ºF. Grease a 9-inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
Measure and sift the unsweetened cocoa into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
In another smallish bowl, combine the almond meal with the baking soda and pinch of salt.
Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale yellow, aerated and thickened cream.
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.
Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, 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.
Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.
