Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake … wholesome and delicious

“Always keep a smile on your face, a rainbow in your heart, and some dark chocolate on hand!”

Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake … seems like a load of dark chocolate and wholegrain happening on PAB of late. That’s where my heart lies. Whether it’s brownies, cookies or biscotti or then cake, wholegrain is the preferred choice, and often dark chocolate the perfect partner in crime!

I must confess that I begin with ‘no chocolate‘ in my intentions, but somewhere along the way cocoa and chocolate find their way into the mix or batter. It’s happened umpteen times, and now I wonder if I function on ‘auto chocolate’?

So this Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake is inspired by the Muscavado Sugar Cake in a brilliant book ‘Good To The Grain‘. I bought the book a few years ago, and it continues to hold pride o f place on my book shelf. I might not bake out of it often, but its a constant source of inspiration alright. Just leafing through the pages gets my creativity going!

Talk about inspiration. So while I was making the cake, unsure of course whether it would work out fine or not, I thought I’d experiment with the styling.  I sometimes find chocolate challenging to shoot so figured I would experiment a little. You see I am headed off to the IFBM in Bangalore to host a food styling workshop. With just a clutch of days to go, the butterflies in my stomach flutter non stop.

It’s just an hours workshop and my first dedicated food styling one. I am super excited and want to cram everything I know into that one precious hour. That’s not going to happen of course, but I am trying. Food styling is so personal, it reflects a bit of you, yet it is so infinite.

That’s the thing about food photography. Just keep experimenting with different, styles, different porps, changing light… it’s this practice that helps you grow. The possibilities are infinite. Much like the pleasure you get from seeing the results! So while the recipe is to feed the blog, the few different snapshots head off to the IFBM!

I enjoy using wholegrains in my recipes, and this one is a hearty and delicious one. Getting amaranth in there made it even better. You can experiment with different combinations, even skip the cocoa like in the original recipe from the book. Oh yes, and try and use unrefined mineral sugars. Make it a habit. I have!

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Recipe: Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake

Summary: Dark, moist and divinely chocolaty, this Dark Chocolate Wholegrain Brown Sugar Cake is sure to be a crowd pleaser. A great tea tray bake, a picnic cake or a tiffin filler, this is sure to become a favourite soon.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:

• 45g amaranth flour
• 80g wholewheat flour
• 25g cocoa
• 20g almond m
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 100g butter, chilled, cubed
• 3 eggs, separated
• 175g brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g dark chocolate chips {optional}

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line an 8 X 8″ square baking tin.
2. In the jar of the food processor, place the amaranth, whole wheat, almond meal, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Pulse briefly to mix and lighten.
3. Add the chilled butter and pulse briefly to get a breadcrumb like mix. Reserve.
4. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. Add 75g brown sugar and beat again until stiff. Place about a 1/4 cup in a piping bag {for marbling on top if desired}. Reserve rest
5. Beat the egg yolks with remaining sugar in a large bowl until light and moussey, almost 5-7 minutes. Add vanilla an d beat again.
6. Gently fold in dry mix, followed by the beaten egg whites. Fold lightly but uniformly. Add chocolate chips if using and gently mix again.
7. Turn into prepared tin, pipe squiggles of reserved beaten egg white if desired.
8. Bake for abut 25-30 minutes or until a tester comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
9. Cool on rack for about 30 minutes. Serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.

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