My Fav Chocolate Cake gets Jazzy for Christmas
This super EASY, nutrient dense, gluten free chocolate cake is divine. It is also incredibly festive and pretty to make for a Christmas celebration as a French Buche de Noel (Christmas cake designed to look like a Yule Log) when glorious berries are in Summer abundance! This recipe is pretty simple and foolproof with eggs and sugars whipped together, followed by melted butter, vanilla, cocoa & ground hazelnuts or almonds. It’s also really nice cake recipe for balance blood sugars at kids parties too. I have made this at many kids birthdays and kids love it (it does contain nuts so its good to check the dietary requirements of your little guests if you are unsure).
I love this cake with runny cream but sometimes it’s really fun to go all out with the whipped cream and fresh or freeze dried & frozen berries for birthday parties or Christmas and when I do, my guests - both young and old pretty much just swoon and die of happiness.
If you are a small gathering, slice up your leftovers and pop them in the freezer - its outstanding frozen I promise!
Ingredients:
Makes one large celebration cake or one 30x40cm Buche de Noel or you can split the batter into 2 smaller cakes.
300g Butter, Melted
150g Caster Sugar
150g Coconut or Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp Dutch Cocoa (see Notes on Cocoa)
6 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Essence or Paste
100g Ground Almonds or Hazelnuts
1/2 Tsp Salt (if using Unsalted Butter)
Decorations:
400ml Cream
Berries of your choice
Homemade or store bought Jam or Coulis
Methods:
Set your oven to 150 degrees celsius.
Line a cake tin or tray with baking paper.
Melt butter.
Beat the sugars and eggs until the mixture thickens and lightens significantly in colour.
Add melted butter & vanilla.
Sift cocoa and add to the ground nuts.
Gently combine with the cocoa and ground nuts and pour into your choice of baking vessel.
Baking Times:
Buche de Noel: 20-25 min (I would check at 20 - 25 min) depending on your oven.
Smaller Cakes 20-25-30 min
Large Cake: 30-40 min.
Assembly:
Cool cake after it comes out of the oven for about an hour - not too long we don’t want it to be at all hot but also not too cold or hard either.
Spread a tea towel over your kitchen table where you will be assembling it all!
Whip 400ml cream
Dust the tea towel with either icing sugar or caster/golden sugar.
Tip your cake out onto the tea towel - don’t fret, it’s all good!
Spread cream evenly over the cake and then dot with berries and jam.
Roll on Brothers and Sisters!!
Transfer to your serving plate and decorate with the remaining cream and berries. Enjoy xxx
Notes: I bake my Buche de Noel in a warped old baking tray, its 30x40cm and it comes out thicker on one side and thin on the other! If you don’t have the perfect sized tray, you can either trim it or just don’t worry, it will taste equally amazing!
Cocoa notes: Any cocoa will work but this recipe has bee tested using strong dutch cocoa - I really love Valrhona Cocoa & Equagold, both dutch cocoas, they are both a strong, beautiful flavour. Ask at the most interesting supermarket or food store in your town. Otherwise, check out Donovans Dutch cocoa, its at most supermarkets too.
