As much as I love the carrot cake recipe from my previous post, I feel like we need to balance it out with another chocolate recipe… This cake is also sweetened mostly with dates and has some wholemeal flour hidden in there, making this a more nutritious but just as delicious an option when compared to conventional cake recipes.

The cake itself is surprisingly light (not a brownie-style cake) and works well with the thick and glossy peanut-flavoured icing. We all know that chocolate and peanut are a match made in foodie heaven. For the topping I used dried berries, but fresh ones will be even nicer (will try this once berries are in season here). Another variation idea would be to carefully cut the cake in half lengthwise, add a layer of raspberry jam and then top with the peanut icing (regretting I didn’t think of this at the time).

Without further ado, let me introduce you to this super easy, spongy chocolate cake:

Spongy Chocolate Cake with Peanut Icing

Makes: 8-10 slices

Ingredients: Cake

Dry ingredients

• 150g flour (I used 100g wholemeal spelt flour and 50g light spelt flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tbsp cacao powder
• 1/2 tbsp carob powder (optional – if not available, just use more cacao powder)
• good pinch of salt

Wet ingredients

• 255 ml mylk (I use oat or rice mylk)
• 1 tbsp liquid sweetener (e.g. date syrup, maple syrup, agave nectar, rice syrup)
• 50g dark chocolate, melted (I used 62% baking chocolate)
• 2-3 drops apple cider vinegar
• 85g date paste*

*The dates must be soft. If your dates are dry try soaking them in hot water first and draining, before blending. I use the Sukari pitted dates from Dattelmann (international website), which are gorgeously squidgy. They’re already pitted and (super) soft. Perfect for snacking or using in baking/cooking. Using their pre-prepared date paste is even easier! You can get 15% off items not already on sale with the discount code “blueberry15” {brand collaboration}.

Ingredients: Peanut icing

• 50g cacao butter
• 50g powdered peanut (I used this one)
• 3 tbsp maple / rice syrup or agave nectar (date syrup would change the color)

Variation: Pairing this cake with my chocolate cream icing is also a match made in heaven! I recently made this cake into muffins (made 8), sliced them horizontally once cooled and spread a layer of chocolate cream onto the bottom half as well as the top of the muffin. Topping with fresh raspberries or strawberries adds the final, delightful touch.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 °C (non-fan), with the baking tray already inside.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and set aside. 
3. Separately combine and blend the wet ingredients. I like to warm up the mylk in a small pan, remove from the stove and add the chocolate in chunks, stirring until incorporated. After adding the maple syrup and apple cider vinegar I pour the mixture over the dates / date paste and blend (using my handheld blender).
4. Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and pour the batter into a loaf-style cake tin lined with baking parchment. 
5. Bake for ca. 25 minutes (a toothpick should come out clean) and leave to cool in the tin. 
6. Prepare the icing by melting the cacao butter on medium low heat and subsequently stirring on the peanut powder and liquid sweetener (once the pan is off the heat). 
7. Ice the cake directly once it has cooled and top with any desired toppings such as fresh or dried fruit, chocolate shavings, nuts, etc. (Note that due to the cacao butter the icing will harden if left overnight; if you want to serve the cake the next day try warming it up a bit beforehand. This would also be delicious with some ice cream on the side 🙂 ).

Enjoy! 

Feel free to tag @blueberrysmiles22 if you share your creations on Instagram, so I can share in the joy 🙂