Red Rock’s very own Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Ingredients:

125 millilitres boiling water
2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
75 grams ground almonds
75 grams of pistachio kernals
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
175 grams caster sugar
150 millilitres olive oil, plus more for greasing. Our Frantoio Olive Oil is best for baking.
3 large eggs
Icing sugar to dust

Method:

Preheat your oven to 170°C/150°C Fan. Grease a 20 cm spring-form tin with a little oil.
Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, still runny paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds and pistachios with the bicarbonate of soda.
Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale, aerated and thickened cream.
Pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond and pistachio mixture.
Pour the batter into the greased tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should appear clean.
Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a knife and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely and dust with icing sugar or eat while still warm with some ice cream.

Flourless Almond and Pistachio Chocolate Olive Oil Cake