Gut & Hormone Healthy Chocolate Cake

This 15-minute chocolate cake is one of my absolute favourites. Not only is it dairy free, grain free, refined sugar free, eggless, vegan, keto, blood sugar friendly and hormone friendly - deep breath - it's also one of the most delicious cakes I've ever had.

This has been my birthday cake for two years running, and I've made this cake for multiple friends and none of them can tell it has none of the normal ingredients you would expect in a chocolate cake as tasty as this one.

It's moist, rich and incredibly more-ish.

The ingredients:

2 cups ground almonds

1/3 cup stevia (or 1 cup xylitol)

3 tablespoons ground flaxseed

9 tablespoons water

1 cup organic cocoa powder

1 tsp Himalayan sea salt

1 cup coconut oil (plus some to grease the baking pan)

90g 100% dark chocolate (Montezuma's is a great choice)

The Utensils:

5 inch springform pan (or you can double the recipe and go for an 8-inch pan)

Mixing Bowl

Small bowl for flax eggs

Recipe:

1.  First, prepare your flax eggs so they can rest while you combine the dry ingredients. Combine your 3 tbsp of ground flaxseed with 9 tbsp of water in a small bowl. Mix thoroughly and set aside.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine ground almonds, stevia, salt and cocoa powder. Mix until combined.

3. On the stove or in a microwave, melt your coconut oil. Add the melted oil to your mixing bowl, and use the remainder from the bowl to grease your baking pan.

5. Add your flax eggs to your mixing bowl and combine until it forms a smooth mixture. In texture, the mixture will resemble cookie dough more closely than regular cake mixture because the coconut oil tends to solidify, but don't worry, it will become beautifully moist once baked.

6. Chop your dark chocolate into chunky pieces - I tend to go for 1cm by 1cm size chunks. Add these to your cake mixture and combine.

7. Bake on a fan oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes (0r 45-50 minutes if you are using an 8-inch pan). Once baked, leave the cake to cool and set for at least 15 minutes before removing the pan and indulging.

8. Enjoy this delicious cake with coconut yoghurt, fresh berries, or combine some coconut yoghurt with cocoa powder to make the perfect chocolate crème.