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Rhubarb raw cacao spice cake

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  • rhubarb cacao spice cake from above
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  • rhubarb cacao spice cake sliced

I made this cake for my birthday. It is spicy, sweet and chocolatey. It is garnished with edible flowers, spiced baked rhubarb batons and raw cacao beans. Raw cacao beans are delicious and can be eaten like nuts with a chocolate crunch. This is my twist on classic chocolate cake: rhubarb and chocolate are so yummy together and rhubarb pickle brine along with rhubarb compote and fresh spices adds a gorgeous intensity of warm rich spice with star anise, pink pepper, fennel, orange, ginger, vanilla and cinnamon.

Rhubarb raw cacao spice cake

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Serves: 8 Cooking Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • Cake: ¾ cup raw organic cacao
  • ¾ cup raw organic honey
  • ¾ cup coconut oil, melted
  • ½ cup Rhubarb compote, plus 1/3 cup for smoothing between the two cake layers when assembling the cake
  • 2 desert spoons Rhubarb pickle brine
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod
  • ½ teaspoon star anise sugar (1 star anise ground to 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar)
  • 2 cups almond meal
  • ½ cup water
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 4 organic real free range eggs, separated
  • Rhubarb batons: ½ bunch rhubarb cut into even 2cm batons
  • Cinnamon and star anise sugar to dust the batons and the finished cake (2 teaspoons of cinnamon to 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar, 1 ground star anise to 1 tablespoon of coconut sugar)
  • Coconut cacao cream: ½ cup coconut yoghurt
  • 6 teaspoons raw organic cacao powder
  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup
  • Garnishes: rose petals, edible flowers (violas) and raw cacao beans, star anise sugar to dust

Instructions

1

Prepare the Rhubarb pickle, Rhubarb compote and rhubarb batons, star anise and cinnamon sugar ahead of time

2

Rhubarb batons and cinnamon sugar: Preheat oven 200 C

3

Place the rhubarb batons on a lined baking tray and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar - 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon mixed with a table spoon of coconut sugar

4

Cook at 200 C for 10 minutes or until the rhubarb is cooked but still retains some crunch, turn the batons as they cook so that they cook evenly and the sugar caramelises rather than burns

5

Star anise sugar: grind 1 star anise in a mortar and pestle and combine with a tablespoon of coconut sugar

6

Cake: Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease and line 2 20cm round cake tins with melted coconut oil and baking paper.

7

Mix the raw cacao, honey, coconut oil, pickle brine and water along with the spices

8

Separate the eggs and beat the yolks until thick and creamy

9

Add the yolks to the chocolate mixture, along with the rhubarb compote and the almond meal

10

Add the baking powder to the chocolate mixture

11

Beat the egg whites until they are stiff peaks

12

Gradually fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture

13

Spoon the cake mixture evenly into the two cake tins and smooth the top

14

Bake for 35 minutes or until the top springs back and a skewer comes out clean when tested in the cake

15

Set the cakes aside to cool

16

When cooled remove the cakes from the pans and assemble by spreading a layer of rhubarb compote between the two cakes

17

Coconut cacao cream: combine the coconut yoghurt, raw cacao and maple syrup

18

Smooth a layer of coconut cacao cream over the top layer of cake

19

Garnishes: Decorate the cake with rhubarb batons, raw cacao beans, rose petals and violas, sprinkle with star anise sugar. To make the rhubarb baton pattern I cut the batons with a diagonal cut at both ends in opposing directions for half the batons and the others I left straight. I used an alternating pattern around the cake in circles. For the centre floret I used the discarded diagonal cuts of rhubarb baton and raw cacao beans. Sprinkle over rose petals and edible flowers.

20

Enjoy with a cup of tea

Notes

Inspired by Irena Macri’s raspberry & honey chocolate torte Eat, drink paleo cookbook (2017: 136). I used Loving Earth raw organic cacao beans

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