Blackberry almond chocolate cake

INGREDIENTS

the cake:

250 g cake flour

60ml almond nut butter

50 g cacao powder

80 g dark chocolate

2 big eggs

200 ml almond milk

200 g caster sugar

5 tbsp olive oil

2 + ½ tsp baking powder

the filling:

3 tbsp of blackberry jam

3 tbsp almond butter

the frosting:

150 g fresh blackberries

200 g mascarpone

3 tbsp icing sugar

40 g butter + a little piece to grease the baking pan

PREPARATION

 

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line the base of the pan with non-stick baking paper.

In a big bowl whip the 2 eggs with 200g of sugar and 5 tablespoons of olive oil till well mixed and smooth.

Add 200 ml of fresh almond milk, stir well to get a liquid mixture.

Crush the chocolate into pieces and melt it in a water bath or in the microwave. Then add it to the liquid mixture stirring with the whisk.

Sift the cocoa powder into the liquid stirring until you have a perfect and fluid dark cream.

Sift into the dark mixture the 250 g cake flour, 60ml almond butter and the baking powder and stir well till well mixed. If the mixture should be too dense you can just add a bit of extra almond milk.

Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake it in the oven at 180 C° for 30 minutes.

Let the cake chill before cutting it into two parts.

Proceed by making the frosting. The first step is to wash and dry your blackberries. Keep apart half of the blackberries to garnish the cake later on. Use the remaining half to make a purée, simply by blending them in the food processor.

In a clean bowl, cream the butter at room temperature adding the icing sugar and stirring very well using an electric whisk. Then add the mascarpone and the blackberry purée by stirring well continuously with the electric whisk to avoid lumps till you get a purple smooth cream.

Cover the bowl with the mascarpone cream and put it into the fridge to thicken for at least 30 minutes.

Pipe a ring of the buttercream just inside the edge of the low layer of the cut cake, thus forming a dam to prevent the jam from leaking out.

Fill the gap in the middle of the ring with abundant blackberry jam and almond butter then place the second half of the cake on top, press down gently.

Spread a thick layer of mascarpone cream over the whole cake. This cake has no artificial colorants and the blackberry purée oxidizes with the air.

Place the cake in the fridge for at least 20 minutes and garnish its top with the remaining fresh blackberries and with fresh flowers and leafs to make it beautiful before serving.