Quinoa Chocolate Cake [gluten free]

When I came across a cake made of quinoa, I couldn’t imagine it would be so good as I had only used it previously for savoury dishes. I could understand using millet: sometimes we do have millet with fruit and honey for breakfast, I even bake a tart with millet. But a cake with quinoa?!

I was so curious that I simply decided to give it a try. The result was surprising and delicious: the cake was very moist and rich and you couldn’t taste the quinoa. It only gave a slight “bite” to the cake but this was in truth an extra value added to its texture.

If a thought of the wonderful taste of this cake hasn’t convinced you yet to bake it, maybe its healthiness will: it contains a super grain but it doesn’t include any flour or butter (I replaced it with healthy rapeseed oil). So what can be better than a piece of an (almost) guilt-free chocolate cake?

INGREDIENTS (for 8-10 portions):

130g quinoa,

250ml water,

dash of olive oil,

80ml milk,

4 eggs,

1tsp vanilla extract,

150ml rapeseed oil,

175g Demerara sugar,

85g cocoa powder,

1.5tsp baking powder,

0.5 tsp baking soda,

0.5 tsp salt.

Icing:

100g dark chocolate

100g white chocolate

6 tbsp milk,

optionally 0.5 tsp beetroot juice (or a few drops of pink food colorant)

METHOD:

1. Prepare the quinoa: put it to a fine mesh strainer, rinse it under running cold water rubbing the seeds with each other with your fingers (for at least 1 minute) and drain well. Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a pot over a medium heat and fry the drained quinoa for about 1 minute till the rest of water evaporates. Add water, 0.25 tsp salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook covered for approx. 15 minutes. Take it out from the heat and let it rest covered for 5 minutes more. Fluff the quinoa with a fork. The quinoa has to be dry, in case there is still some water left, transfer it to a strainer and let it drain completely.
2. Preheat an oven to 170 Celsius degrees (fan oven).
3. Grease a 23cm loose-bottom cake tin with oil and line it with baking paper.
4. In a food processor combine together milk, eggs and vanilla extract; add oil and cooked quinoa, whizz again until smooth.
5. Sieve the cocoa, baking powder and baking soda to a bowl; mix it with the sugar and salt, add the quinoa mixture and stir it well.
6. Pour the mixture to the tin and put to the hot oven. Bake for 40 minutes.
7. Make the icing: melt each type of chocolate separately with 3 tbsp of milk in a heatproof bowl over a pan of boiling water (if you would like to get pink icing add the beetroot juice or the colorant to the white chocolate).
8. When the cake is baked, take it out from the oven, leave it in the tin for 10 min. Afterwards put it on a plate and cool. Spread the dark icing and then pour the pink (white) icing in a decorative way.

Based on: Decadent Chocolate Cake by Mel’s Kitchen Cafe.