Happy Monday .. Here's to a healthier week - Oaty-Choc cake

How fabulous and versatile are oats?! A wonderful food: for porridge, pancakes, flapjack, muesli, crumble... and cakes! I've never used  oat flour for cakes but I was researching flours the other day, and came across the idea . I've had success with oaty pancakes after reading Patrick Holford's nutritional books, as they're really low GI/GL and therefore help to keep blood sugar stable, so it makes sense that they'd be great in cakes. But would the cake rise!?

They're also high in fibre, energy, vitamins and minerals, help cleanse the intestines and help decrease the risk of major diseases, so should be included in everyone's diet (gluten free means they are accessible to all of us too). 

I looked up lots of recipe ideas, and eventually blended several to get the one I wanted, and then practiced with real 'live' ingredients! It took me all day but finally found one that worked. It's not the lightest, fluffiest cake in the world; it's slightly dense in texture, very rich and with raw cacao powder deliciously chocolatey!! 

The added challenge  is to make it refined-sugar free as well as refined carb free so I combined coconut sugar, which is low GL, with Xylitol which is even lower GL. The combination worked a treat so here's the recipe and I really hope you'll give it a try. It's simple - you just combine everything in a processor (I use my trusty  Kitchen Aid) and whizz! Pour into the cake tins, two, and bake! 

Oaty Choc Cake

Ingredients :

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1/4 cup Xylitol

3/4 cup Almond milk 

1 tsp Chia seeds

1 1/4 cups of gluten free oat flour ( you can make oat flour by whizzing up oats in a Vitamix (or other processor) or buy ready milled, go for Organic if possible 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

1 tsp Xanthan gum

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup coconut oil

6 tbsp raw cacao powder

1/4 tsp salt (optional)

Icing : Chocolate Ganache

Ingredients :

Double cream and Xylitol sweetened chocolate chips 2:1 ratio

Method :

Whizz up until smooth and pour into two greased 8" cake tins.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes until a skewer pushed into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Cool on wire racks , and whilst the cakes are cooling make the ganache. Heat the cream in a pan until warm ( don't let it boil) , remove from heat and pour over the chocolate chips. Leave for a minute and then stir until fully combined. Use the ganache to sandwich the cakes together and then to spread over the top. I sprinkled cacao nibs over the top to decorate when the ganache had set.

Enjoy! I ate a slice, with a dollop of probiotic organic plain yoghurt, and a large steaming mug of peppermint tea! Yum!