Why is There Air?

Whole almonds, demerara sugar and orange peel are soon to be ground into a wonderfully fine powder thanks to Thermomix

My readers will know by now that I love chocolate. However, when searching through my blog for previously published chocolate cake recipes I discovered to my – or perhaps your – dismay that there aren’t many to be found in Why is There air. I had a yearning to feed my own chocolate habit and this was a great excuse to blog a really nice chocolate cake recipe. I was further spurred on by finding a lovely sounding recipe in one of those freebie supermarket magazines that you pick up as you’re bagging your groceries. I must admit that I enjoy reading and cooking from ASDA Magazine, and have made their sensational Coconut Lime Easter Cake several times and blogged about it in Have Your Cake and East it, Too.

I also wanted to see if ThermoHubby John’s evening indigestion after eating cakes is caused by gluten, and I was delighted to see that this recipe is gluten free. Therefore, Dear Reader, I present you here with a Thermomix adapted recipe for a gorgeously rich yet surprisingly light Chocolate Orange Cake that happens to be gluten-free as well. So you can have your cake and eat it, too

Ground chocolate melts beautifully at 37 degrees

Gluten-Free Chocolate Orange Cake
Recipe from ASDA Magazine, January 2012. Serves 10.

Ingredients
150 g almonds
thin peelings of 2 medium oranges (and their juice; see below)
100 g sugar
150 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into squares
100 g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin)
6 large free-range eggs
30 g freshly squeezed orange juice
Toppings suggestions:
3 Tbsp cocoa for dusting
orange juice and icing sugar drizzle
fresh berries
whipped crème fraîche or whipped cream

Method

Flick the last of the chocolate batter off the blades

1. Preheat oven to 170°C/150°C fan/Gas mark 3. Grease and line a round, deep 23-cm/9-inch cake tin (the cake will come out more easily from a loose-bottom tin).
2. Weigh almonds and sugar into your Thermomix bowl. Add the orange peel and grind 15 seconds/speed 8. Tip out and reserve.
3. Grate the chocolate pieces 15 seconds/Speed 8.
4. Scrape down the sides of the Thermomix bowl with the spatula. Add the butter and heat 3 minutes/37° C/Speed 2. (Note: 37° C is the perfect temperature for melting and tempering chocolate and Britain’s foremost chocolatiers use the Thermomix daily.) While the chocolate and butter are melting, separate your eggs.
5. Add the egg yolks, orange juice and reserved almond-sugar-orange peel mixture and mix 15 seconds/Speed 4. Scrape out the mixture into a large mixing bowl. Whisk the last bits of chocolate off the blade, 2 seconds/Speed 5.
6. This is where it’s handy to have a second Thermomix. If you don’t have a second one, wash your Thermomix bowl, lid and Butterfly whisk with hot soapy water; rinse and dry thoroughly. They must be grease-free to properly whisk the egg whites. Insert the Butterfly whisk and add the egg whites to the bowl. Whisk 2 to 3 minutes/37° C/Speed 3½/Measuring Cup OFF, until you reach the stiff peak stage.
7. Gently fold 1/3 of the whisked egg whites into the chocolate mixture, then mix in the rest. Do not over mix; it’s the air that makes the cake rise.
8. Pour the cake batter into the greased and lined tin. Bake 35 – 40 minutes until a skewer or toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. (I used an 8-inch/20-cm deep loose-bottomed cake tin and my cake took a full 35 minutes to bake.) Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then carefully turn out or remove from loose-bottom tin and finish cooling on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with your chosen topping.

Wow! Look at that baby bake!

Here's my loose bottom

Gluten free chocolate orange cake

Bon appétit !

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For a wide range of gluten-free recipes for Thermomix, visit the amazing Jo Whitton’s Quirky Cooking blog.