
- 02 Apr, 13
- by Anna Brones
- in Gluten Free, Recipes
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21
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1
Chocolate Kale Cake with Sea Salt
I have made a lot of jokes about putting kale into a chocolate cake. Most of my friends don’t approve. I get a lot of eyebrow raises when I say things like that. So I do more standard things like saute the kale, and everyone shuts up and moves on.
I am not alone. Kristen over at The Kale Project told me that she once made kale cupcakes (no really, you can find the recipe here) and she got some eye rolls as well. I can commiserate.
But then I ended up with a kilo of kale (that’s a little more than two pounds for those of you not on the metric system) and what else was I supposed to do but get creative?
Putting kale in a chocolate cake might not be your first choice in recipe development, but I have a thing about challenging myself to make recipes that incorporate different ingredients, are relatively healthy, and that you could serve to someone and they wouldn’t think twice about what they were eating until you told them. If anyone scoffs at you for making something vegan or gluten free it’s just because they haven’t tried a good recipe. All things can be tweaked and suited to any diet. Even chocolate cake.
But this isn’t about diets. This is about trying to put kale in a cake just because you can.
Challenge accepted.
I chopped up some kale, pureed it for good measure, and whipped together a dense, chocolaty batter and hoped for the best.
I had of course forgotten that a Frenchman was coming over for lunch. Not just any Frenchman. A chef and owner of an organic restaurant.
Shit.
My first rule of cooking: don’t ever serve a new recipe to guests. You always want to make sure you have tasted what you are serving first. But there was no other dessert on hand, and god forbid you serve a French lunch without dessert. Ca ne se fait pas.
There was no other choice. I grated some candied ginger on top just for good measure and set out the plates on the table.
“It’s gluten free… but you have to guess the secret ingredient,” I said, questioning my sanity of serving anything that I had made myself to a French chef.
“Hm… il y a des graines de….?” There are little grains of?
“Des amandes, mais ce n’est pas ça.” Almonds, but that’s not it.
“Ah oui… des petits bouts de vert…. le kale?” Ah yes… the little green bits… kale?
A Frenchman that knew about kale? Amazing.
“Et oui, c’est bon.”
So if this cake is French chef approved, you can stop your eye rolling and make it yourself.
Chocolate Kale Cake with Sea Salt
Ingredients
1/2 cup rice flour
3/4 cup ground almonds or almond flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 large kale leaves
1/8 cup olive oil
For topping:
1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate or chocolate chips
Coarse sea salt
Preparation:
Boil two cups of water. Remove from heat and place kale leaves in water. Cover and let sit for two minutes. Remove and drain water, keeping about 2 tablespoons of the water.
Place kale and the remaining water in a food processor and mix until you get a puree consistency. Depending on the quality of your food processor, you may not get all the way to a puree. Just make sure that the kale is in the smallest bits as possible.
In a bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and vanilla. Mix in cocoa powder. Add kale puree and olive oil.
Mix in flour, almonds and sea salt and stir until well blended.
Grease a circular cake pan and dust with ground almonds. Pour in cake batter. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and sprinkle cake with the chopped chocolate. Turn off the oven and put the cake back in for a minute or two, just to melt the chocolate. Spread chocolate evenly with a knife. Sprinkle lightly with coarse sea salt.
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Comments 21
Foodie Underground: The Secret Diary of a Foodie, Part 4 | EcoSalon | Conscious Culture and Fashion
[…] Two eggs left. Apparently I have an egg problem. Not even enough to make the egg cake I was planning on baking for the neighbor, so now I am going to have to come up with something else. The only thing I have on hand is a chocolate kale cake (it was a favorite on my old greens blog. Why did I ever stop writing that?). Will he want to eat a chocolate kale cake? […]
joanna
fantastique! Loved this post 🙂
Anna Brones
yay! glad you liked it 🙂
Jill Lundberg
LOVED the cake!! It is now tested and delicious. Will make it for my next dinner party! Thank you.
our Comments
Anna Brones
Glad to hear it Jill! Let me know how the dinner guests like it 🙂
Kimberly Nichols aka Unorthodo Foodie
I really love your site. As someone who writes her own blog (mine is at http://www.unorthodoxfoodie.com) and reads about food hours upon hours a day, I can honestly say your site is one of my faves consistently offering great recipes that I actually want to make, every single one!
Cheers!
Kimberly
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[…] this guide for hedonistic, healthy and bike-heavy living. You’ll find gluten-free recipes like sea salt chocolate cake and baked eggs in avocado halves alongside instructions for shopping in bulk with a bike, […]
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[…] Kale cake: Let them eat cake…or kale…or both! Chocolate once again lends a supporting role in sweetening kale, and why not? Both are delicious and two of the most popular superfoods. It’s almost rude not to pair them together. Here’s a yummy-looking recipe for kale in a chocolate cake. Once again, eggs can be substituted out. And of course, you can always add more kale. http://foodieunderground.com/chocolate-kale-cake-with-sea-salt/ […]
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paula rothman
dont have rice flour .. can i use quinoa flour? or some other flour?
Anna Brones
Quinoa flour would probably be great! Because it’s a rather dense cake that is held together thanks to the chocolate I bet you could get away with using most types of flour.
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[…] chocolate has many benefits: Good for your heart and your brain, as long as you are eating it in reasonable amounts (three chocolate bars at one time is not reasonable, for the record), it’s a much better […]
scott
That looks delicious! I’m glad I’m not the only one with these tendencies. xD
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[…] at Foodie Underground, Anna makes a gluten-free chocolate and kale cake with sea salt. […]
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[…] at Foodie Underground, Anna makes a gluten-free chocolate and kale cake with sea salt. […]
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[…] It is highly versatile, you can practically cook it into anything. even chocolate cakes! (Click here to see the recipe for a chocolate kale cake with sea […]
Cassie
Challenge accepted 😀
Prudence
I to like to experiment and be creative! I came up with a Kale Pound Cake that is to die for! EVERYONE loves it and are surprised to find out Kale is in the cake. It is reeeeaaalllyyy good!
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[…] at Foodie Underground, Anna makes a gluten-free chocolate and kale cake with sea salt. […]