Chocolate Birthday Cake with Berry Chia Jam & Chocolate Mousse Icing

For my son’s first birthday I made a cake without refined sugar but still used stoneground wheat flour and organic butter. Last year for his second birthday I was determined to come up with a completely clean cake recipe, so I began The Cake Trials (which you may have seen if you followed my old Instagram account @unsinfully_divine.) I must have baked about 10 cakes in the month leading up to his birthday, and finally came up with the perfect recipe!
This cake was so good I made it again this year for his third birthday. You would never guess that it is so healthy… it’s rich, moist and has a good crumb (very hard to do with gluten-free baking!) Berry chia jam and my awesome Chocolate Mousse Icing finish it perfectly.

INGREDIENTS

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
70g raw cacao paste
150g pitted fresh dates
180ml boiling water
150ml organic maple syrup
200g organic virgin coconut oil
4 eggs
1/2 tsp organic vanilla powder or 1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of himalayan salt
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 cup almond flour
60ml raw cacao powder

For the Chocolate Mousse Icing:

320g mature coconut flesh and 1 1/2 cups hot water, OR 2 cups organic coconut cream
80ml raw honey
pinch of himalayan salt
1/4 tsp organic vanilla powder or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
5ml agar agar powder (not flakes – they require different measurements)
40ml organic virgin coconut oil
90ml raw cacao powder

For the Berry Chia Jam:

1 cup frozen mixed berries
1 tbsp raw honey
1ml organic vanilla powder
small pinch of himalayan salt
2 tbsp chia seeds

METHOD

Set aside the frozen berries to allow them to defrost.

Firstly make the icing. If using fresh coconut to make your own cream, blend the coconut and hot water in a high speed blender for 30 to 60 seconds. Strain through a nut milk bag. Allow it to cool slightly before squeezing so that you don’t burn your hands! Return the coconut cream to the blender, along with the honey, salt, vanilla, agar agar and coconut oil. Blend until smooth. Pour into a saucepan and bring to a gentle boil. Simmer for three minutes exactly and then remove from the heat. Boiling activates the agar agar, allowing it to set, but over boiling will destroy it, so use a timer. Refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 160 C. Line two 20cm cake tins with baking paper or silicone liners.

In a clean, dry blender, grind the oats until you have a fine flour. Sift together with the almond flour and 60ml cacao powder. Set aside.

Place the cacao paste, dates, boiling water and maple syrup in the blender. Blend until completely smooth. Add the coconut oil, vanilla and salt, and the eggs one at a time. Blend until the mixture is smooth, thick and glossy. Add the bicarb and blend just to disperse it thoroughly. Pour the mixture onto the sifted dry ingredients and fold them together. Pour into the cake tins, dividing the mixture evenly, and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

While the cake bakes, make the jam. Blend the berries with the honey, vanilla and salt. You can make it smooth or leave it chunky, as you prefer. Pour into a bowl and stir in the chia seeds. Refrigerate until needed.

Once the icing has set, blend it again with the 90ml cacao powder. Agar sets much firmer in comparison to gelatine, but blending it breaks up that glassy texture, giving you a smooth and creamy end result. Refrigerate again to firm up.

Once the cakes have cooled, turn them out. Use the berry jam to sandwich them together and then top with the icing.

My son asked for a Maleficent cake. I made two 20cm cakes and two 10cm cakes, and sandwiched them together with the jam. I then used coloured cardboard and ribbon to decorate, rather than using fondant icing which is full of refined sugar and chemical colours which are so bad for kids! Once the cardboard was on, I carefully piped the icing ontop, and placed a Maleficent figurine we got from the toyshop on the top of the cake.