I can't believe it's not

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

NB a blender is essential for this recipe, but a simple handheld 'stick' blender as shown in the pictures below is good enough.

200g prunes or dates (dates are sweeter)

4 eggs

200 g ground almonds

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon orange flavouring/essence

1 teaspoon vanilla essence/flavouring

100g butter (replace with oil if you are avoiding dairy)

50g cocoa powder

OPTIONAL

4-5 dessertspoons coconut milk/kefir

1 or 2 blocks of sugar free chocolate sweetened with any of the following: stevia, xylitol, isomalt, sorbitol or isomalt)

Method

1 Blend the dried fruit to a paste. NB if you are using a handheld stick blender, soften the fruit first by soaking it in hot water for 5 minutes, then blend in a tall container, as bits will fly out a little way.

2 Add the eggs, blending in one by one:

3 Blend in the ground almonds:

4 Melt the butter and the cocoa in a pan, and add the orange and vanilla essence:

5 Blend this mixture into the main cake mix:

6 Now taste it. It will be heavier than the consistency of 'normal' cake mix. Add coconut milk or kefir to taste.

7 Cook at 150 degrees for about 35 - 45 minutes.

8 OPTIONAL: When cool, melt 1 to 2 bars of the chocolate, bain marie style (bowl in hot water). I find these types of chocolate do not melt quite as well as mainstream - they solidify faster in the heating bowl. Also because the cake itself is satisfyingly sweet, I tend to use only a little chocolate to cover the cake on special occasions. Usually I skip step 8.