This unusual cake was a contribution of a dear neighbour we had over recently for a dinner party. We were so blown away with the use of quinoa that we had to give it a try ourselves. The recipe is super easy and oh-so-chocolatey! The original recipe isn’t vegan or dairy-free but I did substitute melted coconut oil for the butter and lactose-free milk for the milk. For Vegan, you could use soaked chia seeds for the eggs. Let me know how it turns out if you try the vegan version.
Be ready to hand out the recipe, this cake is that good. I was pleasantly surprised with the frosting, very rich and chocolatey; the mild avocado flavour was not off-putting (unless you hate avocados).
Chocolate Quinoa Cake
For the original recipe, click here.
Makes a double layer 20 cm cake
Ingredients:
- 300 g cooked quinoa (135 g or 3/4 cup dry yields about 300 g cooked)
- 120 mL whole milk
- 4 eggs
- 5 mL pure vanilla extract
- 170 g unsalted butter, melted
- 140 g coconut sugar
- 90 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 2 20cm round baking pans with parchment and spray with non-stick spray.
- Add all of the wet ingredients, quinoa, eggs, vanilla, milk with sugar, salt and cocoa to your large food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Add the baking powder snd blend until combined.
- Turn into prepared pans in equal portions and bake for 30 minutes-or until a cake tester comes out cleanly.
- Cool. Turn out of pans and frost with the frosting below.
Chocolate Avocado frosting
Click here for the original recipe.
Makes about 250 mL, plenty to frost the cake above
Ingredients:
- 2 very ripe avocados
- 45 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 90-120 mL pure maple syrup
- Splash of pure vanilla extract
- Pinch of sea salt
Directions:
- Add all of the ingredients into the cup of your immersion blender and blend repeatedly until entirely smooth.
- Frost cake as soon as it has cooled. Store covered in the refrigerator.
Notes:
- If you blend all of the cake ingredients together for too long, you’ll get a brownie-like texture.
- Flegg (vegan egg substitute) is ground flaxseed with water mixed until gelatinous.
- For the frosting, I used 90 mL Maple syrup and it was sweet enough.
- The original recipe suggests the icing will discolour if made too soon before serving but we didn’t think leaving it for a couple of days impacted the colour to a great degree after all it’s pretty chocolate-brown anyway!
- Avocados must be super ripe to get the creamy texture of a buttercream. You may use frozen avocados.
- The second time I made this recipe I used coconut oil instead of butter and it was lovely.
Well, the renovation is complete. What should have taken 4-6 weeks ended up almost 5 months! This was a better experience than the first; our contractor was younger and had excellent communication skills which made the process much smoother. Basically, we took about 1/3 of our master bedroom and added an ensuite and walk-in closet and we also updated the main bathroom. We contracted the cabinet maker to make the built-ins on the wall across from the bed. JT and I installed the crown moulding. The master bath has all the amenities: fog-free mirror, heated floor, heated towel rack, flush-mount rain shower and so on. I am still on the hunt for a carpet for the bedroom. Here is a short video of the project.
Eva… this cake! It caught my attention when I was travelling and I’ve got it bookmarked to make. It looks scrumptious too the way you present it with the berries and mint… I am so intrigued to discover the texture. Your renos turned out fantastic; love the built-ins – such a clever way to organize without cutting into space and that ensuite…. enjoy, enjoy! So glad it was a better overall experience too.
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Five months but it was worth the wait from the video. It looks like your contractor did a wonderful job.
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Healthy cake? Who knew! This looks really interesting — quite creative recipe. Thanks!
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Eva, to be frank the title of the recipe didn’t sound very exciting (I have never liked quinoa I had at friends’ or in restaurants), but when I saw the photographs…. I thought it might be the first quinoa recipe I will maybe make some day. The cake looks simply amazing!
Thank you so much for sharing the renovation video! 5 months… wow! The results look fantastic though. I must tell you I’m especially impressed with the walk-in closet. I wish I had one! (Impossible in our flat).
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I’ve made that cake too (I got the recipe from a retreat I did) and it is really good indeed! 😀 Your addition of the avocado frosting is fun!
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Oooh, you’d never guess there was a healthy twist on this chocolate cake recipe. Bill would probably notice the avocado, but it I’d happily eat his frosting 🙂 And your renovations look AMAZING!!
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Who would have thought that a decadent chocolate cake could be so healthy too! Thanks for the house tour 🙂 Looks bright and beautiful!
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