Tag Archives: chocolate

Almond Orange Chocolate Cake

7 March 2014

14 Comments

This is one of the easiest cake recipes ever! It’s delicious and super healthy – how often do you find that in a cake?

It’s gluten-free and fat- free – but you would never know.

The recipe is from a friend of mine who is allergic to gluten and she is a master in creating the very best of recipes. This one is originally an orange cake, and it’s so good that I have made it a million times, but one day I thought, hmm chocolate…….in this? I mean, dark bitter chocolate, oranges and almonds……it could only be good and it was.

Orange Chocolate Almond Cake

Orange Chocolate Almond Cake

Almond Orange Chocolate  Cake

4 organic oranges

6 organic free range eggs

150g raw sugar

250g raw almonds

150g good dark chocolate

1 large teaspoon baking powder

1 vanilla pod

sea salt

Boiled Oranges

Boiled Oranges

You boil the oranges in water for 2 hours, allow them to cool. Melt the chocolate and allow it to cool slightly.  In the blender, blend the almonds into flour, then add the sugar, roughly chop the oranges and take out the pips, then put it, including the peel (no pips) into the blender along with the rest of the ingredients – blend into a dough.

Good Chocolate

Good Chocolate

Raw Almonds

Raw Almonds

Vanilla pod

Vanilla pod

Put the dough into a very well greased cake tin and cook in the oven for about 35 min at 360F

Still too hot to cut

Still too hot to cut

Serve the cake with some stewed berries or some orange sauce.

Served with stewed berries

Served with stewed berries

Let’s face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; It does for me. Audrey Hepburn 

I agree 🙂

Hope you have a fabulous weekend wherever you are!

Healthy Energy Truffles

21 January 2013

28 Comments

This recipe is from a very dear and special friend of mine. She suffers from gluten allergy and therefore she is always looking for new and creative ways for eating healthy and gluten-free.

She gave me her recipe here for these “Healthy Energy Truffles” and I just love it. They are easy to make and can be put in the freezer and taken out to enjoy whenever and whereever you need a good healthy snack.

Perfect snack

Perfect snack

They are full of goodness – seeds, raisins, cranberries, honey and chocolate chips.

Energy Balls

Healthy Energy Truffles

1/2 cup  toasted sunflower seeds

1/2 cup  toasted pumpkin seeds

1 cup toasted sesame seeds

1 cup  quinoa flakes

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup of cocoa powder – or 100g dark good quality chocolate

1 cup dried cranberries

2 cups of peanut butter (1 jar @ 500g)

1/2 cup of honey

1 cup of toasted sesame or coconut seeds to roll the truffles in. I used toasted sesame seeds and a bit of pumpkin seeds.

Everything is mixed well together and made into balls the size of a golf ball and finished of by rolling them in toasted sesame/ pumpkin or coconut. Keep what you need in the fridge and freeze the rest.

Served with a nice cup of tea

Served with a nice cup of tea

Orange Chocolate Truffle Treats

21 November 2012

15 Comments

I don’t know about you, but I adore chocolate!! I have always loved anything chocolate.  Once while visiting Brussels, I tried chocolate that was SO good that nothing has been the same since. That experience changed me forever.  Since then, I will rather be without chocolate than eat mediocre chocolate! Eating Belgium chocolate is like going for a visit to heaven. 🙂

Good chocolate has a very high content of coco bean, usually more than 70%, whereas some common (popular) brands of chocolate contain very little coco, if any at all.

Today I made some delicious Orange Chocolate Truffle Treats. These are totally healthy – good for you at the same time. They contain no white sugar, no white flour, no butter, no cream, no eggs, but none the less, crazily tasty!  I served them to the kids after school and they devoured them eagerly, no questions asked. The dark chocolate, the nuts, and with a hint of orange, makes these little treats, a divine mouthful. The perfect snack!

Orange Chocolate Truffle Treats

1 can of black beans

200 g of good dark chocolate min 70% coco bean

10 medjool dates

2 table spoons Agave sirup

2 organic oranges

1 cup raw almonds

1/4 cup walnuts

pinch of sea salt

Simply add the almonds to a blender, blend into flour, drain and rinse the black beans, put them in the blender, add 200 g of melted chocolate, grate one orange and add the gratings (rind) to the blender, peel the oranges and add them too, add the dates and the agave syrup, add a pinch of sea salt and blend all the ingredients to a smooth consistency. Roughly chop the walnuts and add them to the chocolate “truffle mix”.

Now on a clean counter pour out some coco and some shredded coconut – now roll the truffle mix into little balls and roll each one in either coco or coconut. Place them on a plate and cover them – put them in the freezer and take them out when you need a special treat. But, allow them to defrost before you bite into them.

Orange vanilla brownie

18 June 2012

5 Comments

Yesterday, my kitchen was full of happy teenagers who had gathered to make a cake.  I LOVE  a busy kitchen, humming with life, conversation and good food.

Earlier, my daughter and her friends had been out shopping for the things to make the cake. And, as you know how I am an advocate for authentic honest food, well I admit, I was challenged! Out of the shopping bags came Orio biscuits, jello and chocolate cake mix – the only real ingredient for the cake were eggs! Sorry, I don’t mean to be a bore, but really – we have been fooled to believe that using cake mix is easier and cheaper than making the real thing – from scratch – and that’s just not right!

The cake was mixed and went into the oven, while music, chatter and laughter filled the kitchen.

When the cake was ready, they tasted it – still hot from the oven. They were digging into it with their forks and I overheard: “Hmm, it tastes kinda gross, don’t you think’?

Taking my cue, I offered to give a cake course during the summer! The response was loud and in unison: ” Yes, please, that would be so cool! ”

Here’s a recipe that is quicker and just as easy to make – and it tastes good!

Orange vanilla brownie

You will need;

2 eggs

175 g  cane sugar

3/4 cup  butter

100 g of good dark chocolate – I use the 70-85% coco kind.

90 g flour

1 vanilla pod

1 organic orange

a small pinch of salt

1 handful of freshly chopped walnuts or pecans ( As I had run out of these – I just left them out, but it does taste good with nuts in it.)

In a bowl, whisk the eggs and the sugar, break open the vanilla pod and scrape out the bean, add it to the eggs and sugar and whisk some more. Melt the butter and the chocolate slowly over a water bath.

Add the melted chocolate and butter to the eggs and sugar, while whisking. Grate the rind of an organic orange, add it to the mixture and squeeze in the juice of 1/2 the orange . Fold in the flour and the chopped nuts.

Add the batter to a greased pie tin and bake for 25-30 min at 350F

Serve with a coulis of raspberry or fresh berries.