Dark Chocolate Almond Meal Cake w/ Peanut Butter Glaze

Sunday we went to Maine to celebrate Father’s Day with relatives. I didn’t need any more of an excuse to start baking. I’d already had this cake recipe in my head and couldn’t wait to try it out.

The body of the cake is made with just almond flour, making it gluten and grain-free and lending a slightly nutty flavor. Because almond flour isn’t all that absorbent, the cake comes out slightly dense and fudgy. I don’t know about you, but those are two adjectives I like to describe my cakes. The cake isn’t all that sweet, though, so the glaze adds that final punch of flavor that makes it a show stopper. This cake recipe will become my standard for frosted and layer cakes.

Dark Chocolate Almond Meal Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups finely ground almond meal
• 3/4 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1/4 cup neutral oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Sift together the almond meal, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. Whisk in the eggs, oil, vanilla extract, and egg whites completely.

Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a double boiler and fold that into the cake batter until it’s completely emulsified. Pour the cake into a cake pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until the center has set. Remove from the oven and let cool.

This is a great gluten-free cake on its own, but it’s not incredibly sweet nor does it have much else going for it. This cake really begs for a frosting or a glaze of some sort, and what goes better with chocolate than peanut butter?

Peanut Butter Glaze

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• Water to thin

Scoop the peanut butter into a large bowl. Slowly sift in the powdered sugar, mixing it in little by little. When the sugar is completely incorporated, pour in the maple syrup and stir. Slowly incorporate water until the frosting reaches a glaze-like consistency. Pour the glaze over the cake and level out.

I decorated mine with Trader Joe’s miniature peanut butter cups and cut it up into 14 slices. I couldn’t believe how well this turned out on the first try. The cake is somewhere between cakey and fudgy, which isn’t and easy balance to strike with gluten-free flours. And the peanut butter glaze doesn’t over power the rich chocolate in the cake.

I’ve set a goal to only have one slice a day. So far that’s not going so well.