Chocolate Buckwheat Cake (Gluten Free)

Pour yourself a cup of excellent coffee. Put your slippers on. Get a comfy quilt and put if over your legs. Pick up your favourite magazine. Cut yourself a slice of Chocolate Buckwheat Cake - Life is good, isn't it?


Chocolate Buckwheat Cake (Gluten Free)
slightly adapted from Smitten Kitchen

100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the pan
100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
4 eggs, room temperature
100g golden caster sugar
Pinch of sea salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
35g buckwheat flour
30g almond meal
Icing sugar for dusting (optional)
Whipped cream to serve (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Spray a 23cm round cake pan with cooking oil spray and line the bottom with baking paper.

Melt the butter and sugar in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the eggs, sugar and salt until pale and fluffy and doubled in volume, between 5 - 9 minutes. The air you create here gives the cake it's super-light texture, so it's best not to cut corners.

Fold the vanilla and melted chocolate mixture into the egg mixture ever-so gently. Sprinkle the buckwheat and almond meal as evenly as possible over the batter and very gently fold to combine. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20 - 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for five minutes on a rack before inverting it onto the rack. Remove the baking paper and then turn it back, right-side-up, onto a serving platter or cake stand.

Dust with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream (optional).