I’m constantly creating recipes or tweaking existing recipes to highlight fruit as the primary sweetener. I don’t even own a bag of white or brown sugar. Dates are a consistent favorite of mine, but I’ve recently been reminded of just how amazing and versatile a bag of frozen cherries can be.
I love concocting fun cakes and since we had a family birthday coming up, I decided on a fancy chocolate cake (at least fancier than my usual chocolate snacking cake).
I found a great recipe online for a grain-free chocolate cake and decided to switch it up with some swaps. Instead of coconut sugar and maple syrup, I pureed some dates. And instead of applesauce, I used defrosted sweet cherries. I added a little whole-wheat flour to counter-balance the extra liquid.
This is a delicious and rich cake. It is quite dense, so I actually recommend letting it set up in the fridge a bit if you can. I wasn’t able to, but it was still great. Definitely sweet enough and super chocolately!
Chocolate-Cherry Cake with Raspberries & Ganache
Adapted from Kitchen McCabe
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
- ¾ cup almond flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder
- 200 g pureed dates
- ½ cup pureed sweet cherries (thawed from frozen)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup coconut oil (melted)
- For the ganache:
- 1¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate, I used 70%
- ½ cup full-fat coconut milk from a can, divided
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1-2 cartons fresh raspberries
- Flaked sea salt for sprinkling
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of an 8′ round pan with parchment and grease the sides (I used coconut oil).
In a large bowl, whisk to combine the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt. In a food processor, add the dates and thawed cherries. Process until smooth. Note: if your dates are a bit dry, soak them in hot water for about 10 minutes first, but discard the hot water. To the food processor, add the vanilla, eggs and coconut oil. Blend to combine and then pour into bowl of dry ingredients. Mix just until combined.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. The cake should be somewhat firm to the touch.
Let cake cool in pan and then turn out onto a plate. Spread ganache over top and top with raspberries and flaked salt.
To make ganache: in a heat-proof bowl, microwave chocolate, 1/4 cup coconut milk and coconut oil just until chocolate starts to melt. Whisk until chocolate melts completely. If there are still bits of chocolate you can heat again in 20 second increments. Pour chocolate into a cool bowl and add remaining coconut milk–whisk until ganache forms. Let ganache sit until it is the desired consistency to spread on cooled cake.
