Before you judge, give this cake a chance because you can’t actually taste the black beans and it gives the cake a nice fudgy texture as well as added nutrition like protein and fibre! This cake is delicious but also suitable for those on a gluten-free, wheat-free, dairy-free, lactose-free diet and can be made egg-free and vegan by using chia or flax eggs (refer to the bottom of the recipe).
(Serves 6-8)
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup cooked black beans (you can use chickpeas instead)
- 1 ½ cups almond meal (buy the already mealed version or make meal yourself with almonds – don’t need to soak, just grind to a powder in a food processor)
- ½ cup cacao powder
- ¼ cup cocoa butter, melted (can use oil or coconut oil or Nutellex instead)
- 3 eggs or ‘chia eggs’ (refer below for ‘chia egg’ recipe)
- ½ cup mashed banana
- ½ cup Natvia stevia powder (or preferred sweetener e.g. sugar or maple syrup)
- ½ cup chopped nuts (I used ¼ cup walnuts + ¼ cup pecans but any is fine e.g. hazelnuts)
- ½ cup chopped dates
Vanilla Cashew Cream
- ½ cup soaked cashews (soak overnight or for at least 4-6 hours) – makes about ¾ soaked
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 2 tablespoons Natvia stevia or other brand or preferred sweetener
- 1 tablespoon vanilla essence / extract
- 2 tablespoons almond milk (or preferred milk e.g. coconut, soy, rice or dairy)
Method
- Pre-heat over to 200°C. Grease and line a round pop-up baking tin with baking paper (can use olive oil spray, coconut oil spray on tray and paper). I used a 20-25cm diameter tin that was about 8cm high.
- Add all cake ingredients except the chopped nuts and chopped dates into a food processor and process until smooth. Fold in the chopped nuts and dates but don’t process these. Pour cake mix into prepared baking tin. Place in oven for 15 minutes then put an aluminium foil over the top not to burn, bake for a further 15-20 minutes. The cake is still soft when done but hardens as cools.
- While cake is baking make the cashew cream. Place all cashew cream ingredients into a food processor and process until it gets as smooth as it can. Place in the fridge until use.
- Allow cake to cool and then pipe cashew cream on cake or serve on the side.
How to Make Chia eggs
To make 1 chia egg place 1 tablespoon of chia seeds in 4 tablespoons water and let sit for 5-10 minutes until it gels). Multiply this by 3 for this recipe if using instead of eggs. (I used chia eggs in the original recipe)
