Grace Under Pressure Author Tori Haschka Shares Her Recipe for the Perfect Date and Cocoa Torte

Easy Date and Cocoa Torte

Everyone needs an excellent chocolate cake in their repertoire. I’m talking about one that doesn’t rely on refined sugar, one that happily feeds the coeliac in your mother’s group and one you can demolish a piece of without having to worry too much. This is it. Cook it now and bookmark it for life. There’s cocoa for a dense chocolate hit and almonds for substance. It can be made in a blender and baked in a jiffy. This is my default for kids’ birthday party cakes, allowing for a sturdy cake for carving, which doesn’t send the kids into a manic sugar high. For the best allergy-friendly option, substitute the ground almonds with the same quantity of oat flour and use coconut oil instead of butter.

Serves 8

Ingredients

275 g of seeded dates (plus a few extra to serve)

1 cup/250 ml boiling water

1 tsp bicarb soda/baking soda

75 g unsalted butter, cut into pieces the size of playing dice, or coconut oil

3 eggs

50 g cocoa powder
pinch of salt

150 g/1 ½ cups ground almonds or oat flour

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and grease and line a 23 cm cake tin with baking paper.

2) Place the dates, boiling water and bicarb soda in the body of a food processor or blender. Allow to stand for five minutes.

3) Add the cubes of butter and blitz to combine into a sweet slurry.

4) Add the eggs and blitz again to combine.

5) Add the cocoa, ground almonds and salt and blitz to combine.

6) Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 45 – 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.

7)  Top with a few diced dates and chopped almonds. Eat either warm or at room temperature.