Chocolate Almond Meal Cake

This is another recipe that I had to create because I didn’t like most of what was out there. I wanted almond meal for the “flour,” and I didn’t want a recipe that told me to measure whole nuts and then grind them. (The almond meal at Trader Joe’s usually costs less per pound than whole almonds in this town. It would be a waste of time and money for me to grind my own!)

I also wanted a recipe that uses cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate. Having grown up baking with cocoa powder, I know it can give a rich flavor to baked goods. I didn’t want to go melting and messing with baking chocolate when cocoa powder can just be stirred into the dry ingredients.

On top of that, of course, the recipe had to be sugar-free.

But no matter how I ran the Google search, I couldn’t find a recipe that met all three criteria.

So I started “hacking” Laura Dolson’s Sugar Free Chocolate Pecan Torte recipe . I didn’t get it right, though, until I crossed the recipe with The LowCarbist’s almond meal corn bread (which I do usually use as corn bread).

The result is a low carb, sugar-free, gluten free chocolate cake (or torte*) that meets my criteria. In addition to being low-cost and fuss-free, it has a fine-grained cake texture and a rich chocolate taste. Few people will realize it’s not a “standard” chocolate cake.

And of course, this cake is actually good for you!  What’s more, almond meal baked-goods are usually more filling than the grain-based originals.

So in addition to serving this cake for dessert, I often use it as a snack or breakfast bread. I’ll spread butter on it for added flavor, or nut butter for added protein.

*Here in the U.S., a torte is any cake made without flour. Europe has a slightly different definition (see the note on this Joy of Baking recipe for details). To avoid confusion, I gave up and named this recipe a “cake”!

Chocolate Almond Meal Cake

Ingredients

• 2 cups almond meal
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted (OR 1/4 cup your favorite cooking oil)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Sweetener equal to 1 1/4 cups sugar*
• I used stevia/erythritol blend (6 packets) and powdered stevia (1 tsp).
• Paleo/primal folks, feel free to use your favorite natural sweetener(s). Please know, though, that if you use honey or another liquid sweetener, you may need to reduce the water in the recipe.

*This is just enough sweetener to take away the bitterness of the cocoa and give the barest hint of “sweet.” If you like your cake  sweeter than that, use sweetener equal to 1 1/2 cups sugar or more.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8″ or 9″ cake pan and set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together almond meal, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs with whisk or electric mixer. Add water and mix well. Add butter and mix again. Add vanilla and sweetener and mix again.
4. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture. Stir/mix until thoroughly blended.
5. Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Let top of cake get completely cool to the touch before cutting or removing it from the pan.

Yield: One single-layer cake, 8 – 12 slices.

Nutritional Information:Each of 8 slices contains approximately 7.1 g carbohydrates, 4.0 g fiber, 3.1 g net carbs, 9.0 g protein, 20.8 g fat, and 235 calories.