You can't go wrong with chocolate! This at first glance simple cake is an absolutely luxurious treat. Use the best chocolate you can find and you'll be in chocolate heaven.
It's basically a baked chocolate mousse enhanced with coconut flour and fragrant rum raisins. Once cooled, it resembles a cross between a sponge cake and brownies - a dense chocolate cake yet light as a cloud, does that make sense? It's irresistible!
At my house we often eat sourdough bread and other baked goods made from spelt or rye, so I'm always happy to bake something gluten-free from time to time. I always make my boys most happy with chocolate (or anything with chocolate ), ideally combined with peanut butter, which is not the case here.
This time I put chocolate in combination with coconut! Coconut flour is the kind of food that has been sitting in my cupboard for a long time and I just can't seem to get my hands on it. I know why! I didn't buy it myself, but I got it as a gift. And as soon as I have no plans for it, it's like it doesn't exist. You know, coconut flour is not the same as wheat flour or almond flour.
Just a quick note
Coconut flour absorbs a lot of water and puffs up during baking and has a coarse texture. Therefore, it can't just be added to an actual recipe or substituted in a free way. No no, there must be special recipes made with this flour for perfect results! And I made that as one of my resolutions, along with including more chickpeas in my diet, but more on that next time.
So the coconut flour goes into this cake in a relatively small amount, but the flavor is definitely not left behind. There is a much larger amount of dark chocolate, butter and eggs in the cake! For me, if there are a lot of eggs in a dessert, it's an IDEAL dessert because then it also contains a lot of protein and there are a whole 5 eggs in this cake!
Do you love chocolate? Try another one of my CHOCO recipes!
Why use coconut flour?
Why should I actually bake with coconut flour? That's what I asked myself every time I've seen that big bag of coconut flour in my pantry. Well, it's a gluten-free flour, full of fiber and also protein, so healthy. It smells and tastes like coconut of course, it is after all the dried and ground flesh of a coconut. And I must also highlight its price! Compared to almond flour or other nut flours, it is significantly cheaper.
If you are conscious about the amount of gluten in your diet, coconut flour might be an interesting alternative for you. Just tweak your current recipes to use coconut flour. However, bake goods made with coconut flour tend to be crumbly (especially if you put a lot of it in) and because of this, it is recommended to add more of a "binder" to the batter, whether it's the egg from the happy chickens, the flaxseed one, the chia seed one, or a bit of psyllium.
This recipe is full of eggs, so I'm calling it the best recipe to get introduced to coconut flour!
What can I soak raisins in?
As for baking, I just stick with using rum. But if you want to indulge in an extra luxurious treat, try port wine, whiskey, cognac or various dessert wines. For a non-alcoholic option , orange juice, black tea, fruit tea or plain water will work great. So the options are countless!
What kind of chocolate can I use for chocolate cake?
I always tend to choose dark chocolate with a cocoa content of around 60% for baking, as I prefer less sweet desserts. Chocolate bars are fine but the best choice is chocolate chips, as they just need to be scooped out of the bag and they melt evenly in the water bath!
But baking is a creative process so I wouldn't want to keep you stuck to just one option. In fact, I wouldn't be afraid to experiment with other types of chocolate such as milk, white, Ruby or various nutty or nougat chocolates. The cake will be a lot sweeter, but it will work great!
How to bake a chocolate cake with coconut and raisins?
First we need to prepare the raisins:
- The day before, soak the raisins with a splash of water and rum and leave them to soften overnight.
- Or pour hot water and rum over them and let them soak for 15 minutes.
Prepare the batter: In a fireproof bowl, add chocolate broken into chunks along with cubes of butter. Place the bowl over a pot with water and let the chocolate and butter melt.
When almost melted, remove the bowl from the water bath and stir until everything is melted. This will cool the chocolate mixture slightly and you can work with it as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the maple syrup in a large bowl. I like to add syrups instead of sugar. I don't have to wait for the sugar crystals to dissolve, I often just add less and they taste amazing.
Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture and stir. Sift in the coconut flour and stir again. Sifting will aerate the flour and remove any lumps.
In another clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt. Gently stir the beaten egg whites into the batter with a spatula and finally add the drained raisins.
Grease a 22 cm diameter tin with butter (or coconut oil) and dust with coconut flour. Transfer the dough into the tin and smooth the surface. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 25 minutes.
Let the chocolate cake cool in the tin and when serving, sprinkle with more Dutch or natural cocoa powder. The cake tastes best with a good dollop of whipped cream!
- Don't you have coconut flour? Use equal amounts of almond flour, ground walnuts, cashews or hazelnuts or even plain flour
- Don't have any flour at home and you've just run out of nuts? Skip it!
- Raisins can also be substituted for other dried fruit - especially chopped soft plums or cranberries
- raisins also can be found in a different variety in the stores. I always grab a huge bag of organic sultanas.
Recipe
Recipe for 6-8 servings
Chocolate cake with coconut and raisins
Ingredients:
- 150 g butter
- 150 g dark chocolate (65%) or cooking chocolate
- 5 eggs, yolks and whites separately
- 75 g maple syrup
- 75 g coconut flour
- pinch of salt
- 50 g raisins
- 2 tbsp rum
- whipped cream for serving
- cocoa for sprinkling
Instructions:
- Prepare the raisins: The day before, soak the raisins with a splash of water and rum and leave them to soften overnight. Or pour hot water and rum over them and let them soak for 15 minutes.
- Prepare the batter: In a fireproof bowl, add chocolate broken into chunks along with cubes of butter. Place the bowl over a pot with water and let the chocolate and butter melt.
- When almost melted, remove the bowl from the water bath and stir until everything is melted. Let it cool slightly.
- Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks with the maple syrup in a large bowl. Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture and stir.
- Sift in the coconut flour and stir again.
- In another clean and dry bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt.
- Gently stir the beaten egg whites into the batter with a spatula and finally add the drained raisins.
- Grease a 22 cm diameter tin with butter and dust with coconut flour. Transfer the dough into the tin and smooth the surface.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C for about 25 minutes.
- Let the chocolate cake cool in the tin.
- When serving, sprinkle with Dutch or natural cocoa powder. The cake tastes best with a good dollop of whipped cream!
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