Magic Bean Chocolate Cake – gf, nf, df

I came across the Hungry Hungry Hippies blog whilst searching for ideas of digger themed birthday cakes. I loved the cake that she made, enough to go and buy the book it was based on and make my own version! I started reading and found this recipe for a gluten free and nut free chocolate cake. I made this on the morning of Monsieur’s birthday, just before we headed down the coast. It is a good recipe indeed that can be made for the first time in the middle of packing for a weekend away.

Even R, who is not normally a cake-lover, enjoyed it, so it received a whole-hearted tick of approval. The first few times I made it, it was a light chocolate cake, but the muffins I’ve recently been making are denser and have a rich chocolate flavour. I usually make it into little muffins or cupcakes – I have small muffin trays that I use for almost every recipe. I find muffin size snacks perfect for freezing and easy to pack when I’m in a hurry. The last batch that I made, I added in a good handful each of frozen blueberries and  raw cacao nibs. It added just a little extra to an already decadent snack. As a cake, it goes really well with thick, dollop-y cream, but the little cupcake/muffins are fine as they are.

There are different versions of this floating around; some are specifically for Thermomix and some use a standard food processor. In the Thermomix (TMX), this is very quick and easy to make. For anyone wanting to try this in a normal food processor, I would suggest using the method given in this version, which was sent to me by a friend who it for her son on his birthday! Great minds, or perhaps that should be great mamas think alike 😉

 
MAGIC BEAN CHOCOLATE CAKE
 
GLUTEN FREE, NUT FREE, CAN BE DAIRY FREE
 
INGREDIENTS
420g can of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed OR 110g dried red kidney beans soaked and cooked
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
5 eggs
70g raw cacao powder or cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon pink salt
125g butter or 65g (⅓ cup) oil*
180g coconut sugar**
Optional: frozen blueberries, raw cacao nibs, anything else that might take your fancy in chocolate cake!
Ensure if you are going dairy-free that you use oil instead of butter and don’t use butter to grease your baking tin
 
METHOD
Pre-heat oven to 180C. Grease ring cake tin or muffin tray.
Place red kidney beans, water, eggs and vanilla essence in TMX and blitz 2 minutes at speed 7.
Add all other ingredients, except the optional ingredients, and mix for 20 seconds, at speed 4.
Add optional ingredients, if using them, and mix on reverse for 10 seconds at speed 4.
Pour into ring tin or muffin trays.
Bake 30 minutes (ring tin) or 20-25minutes (muffin tray), or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
 
SOURCE: http://hungryhungryhippies.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/feeding-the-funky-bunch-magic-bean-cake/
 
* Original recipe suggests rice bran or vegetable oil. I haven’t made this with oil yet as I quite like butter!
** Original recipe uses sugar or rapadura sugar. I find that coconut sugar is just as good as rapadura sugar. These are quite decadent without being overly sweet.
 
 

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