APPLE BUCKWHEAT CAKE

Getting ill on weekends seems to be my favourite thing to do in the world, and when you don’t have any sort of contact with human beings of any sort for three and a half days, and you stay all curled up in bed like an amoeba for three and a half days, then it’s quite understandable that you kind of wish you were home where caring human beings feed you ice cream and you don’t have to go out to buy carrots with a fever and toilet paper and that sort of things. So now that I am apparently succeeding in defeating disease, I gathered all the strength I had left (just enough to grate an apple to be precise) and baked something kind of home-related. Buckwheat flour is very common where I’m from in Northern Italy so here’s a buckwheat flour cake. It’s very light and moist because of the apple and apple puree and it’s usually served with a redcurrant or blueberry or raspberry jam filling. Now I am known for being a fan of sweet chocolateyness so to the redcurrant jam I added some chocolate filling. Sorry Italian food police. This is so good and sticky and chocolatey.

APPLE BUCKWHEAT CAKE

with chocolate & redcurrant jam filling

300g (2 ½ cups) buckwheat flour

100g (1 cup) ground almonds

100g (1/3 cup) unrefined golden caster sugar

1 tablespoon cream of tartar

250g (1 cup) apple puree

240ml (1 cup) soya milk or other non-dairy milk

120ml (1/2 cup) sunflower oil or other flavourless oil

1 large yellow apple, grated

Filling:

150g (1 cup) dark chocolate chips

2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

½ teaspoon salt

redcurrant jam

Preheat the oven to 170°C/340°F and lightly grease a 22cm/9” cake tin.

In a large bowl, mix together buckwheat flour, ground almonds, sugar and cream of tartar. In a separate bowl combine apple puree, milk and oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, mix well with a spoon until combined, then add the grated apple. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Place onto a rack to cool for about 20 minutes, then remove from the tin and leave until completely cool.

Once cool, cut the cake into three even layers and move on to the chocolate filling. Melt the chocolate chips over a low heat then add the melted coconut oil and salt and mix until well combined. Pour about 1/3 of the chocolate filling onto each layer then spread a generous amount of red currant jam onto two of the layers over the chocolate filling. To assemble, sandwich the three layers on top of each other, leaving the layer without jam at the very top.

Slice and enjoy to fight all illnesses.