The Recipe

Makes 12 servings

1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon allspice
4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar, divided
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 teaspoon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Grease the sides of a 9-inch round cake pan and line the bottom with baker’s parchment. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a food processor, grind the almonds and chocolate chips with the cocoa until very, very fine. Stir the ground-chocolate mixture together with the flour and allspice and set aside.

3. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites. Put the whites in the work bowl of an electric mixer and the yolks in a separate mixing bowl.

4. Whisk the egg yolks with 1/2 cup of the sugar and the vanilla until light and fluffy, then whisk in the oil and set aside. Beat the egg whites with the vinegar and salt until the whites hold stiff peaks. With the mixer still running, stream in the rest of the sugar and continue beating for a few seconds to dissolve the sugar.

5. Fold one third of the egg whites and half the ground-chocolate mixture into the bowl with the yolks. Fold in another third of the whites with the remaining chocolate mixture, then fold in the last third of the whites to make a light, fluffy batter.

6. Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 minutes or just until the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes. Turn the cooled cake upside down onto a larger pan or directly onto a serving platter and peel away the baker’s parchment.

7. Coat the cake with chocolate glaze, then pipe the powdered-sugar glaze over the chocolate glaze in a spiral pattern. To form the lines of the web pattern, draw a knife across the glaze from the center of the cake outward at regular intervals.

For the Chocolate Glaze

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup canola oil

Put the chocolate chips and the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.

For the Powdered Sugar Glaze

3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons half-and-half, or as needed

Put the powdered sugar and half-and-half in a small bowl and stir until smooth. If the glaze seems pasty, add a little more cream. The glaze should be soft enough to flow steadily in a thick stream from the spoon, but not too runny. Put the glaze into a self-sealing food-storage bag and snip off one corner to create a simple pastry bag.

My Alterations

This cake is pretty complicated, what with the grinding of almonds and whipping of egg whites and all. I don’t normally go for cakes with this much prep work, but after the disastrous Plum and Cardamom cake, I wanted to try a complicated cake again. But succeed!

I used ground mixed spice instead of allspice. I don’t think there is much difference; just a semantics UK vs USA issue.

I didn’t do the fancy spiderweb frosting, though. I rarely have time for those extra bits.

The Results

This cake was unbelievably light! As I turned it out of the pan, I practically flung it across the room because I underestimated its weight so much.

It had a lovely rich chocolate taste, but I expected it to taste a little spicier than it did. The name of the cake made me think of ancient Mayan chocolate, eaten with chili peppers.

The really fabulous part of the cake was how light and feathery its texture was. The top of the cake was a little crunchy, but the rest of the cake was soft, moist and all-around lovely.

I brought this cake to a church function and it was gone in minutes. I wasn’t surprised!

The Verdict

This is a gorgeous cake. It tasted wonderful and even though the recipe was slightly lengthy and complicated, it was well worth the effort. I would be happy to make this cake again.

The Rating

5/5

This was a great cake!

I use whole wheat flour quite regularly in baking; this recipe comes from a very informative booklet produced by my church called “Cooking with Wheat.” My supply of whole wheat flour was diminishing, so I decided to finish off what I had with this recipe. There were many other desserts made with whole wheat flour, so I’m sure I’ll come back to this booklet again.

I have to admit, however, that the idea of mayonnaise in cake sort of grossed me out. Mayonnaise is tangy! Chocolate cake shouldn’t be tangy! Ewww! I put my reservations aside, however, because the mayonnaise seems to take the place of egg and butter/oil in the recipe, so the cake should work. In theory.

The Recipe

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup sugar

½ tsp salt

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp vanilla

4 Tbs cocoa

1 cup warm water

1 cup mayonnaise

Put all ingredients in bowl; mix thoroughly; put into a greased and floured tin. Bake at 350F/180C/Gas 4 for 30 minutes or until springs back when touched. When cool, top with chocolate butter icing.

My Alterations

I stuck to the recipe pretty closely. It was incredibly easy – dump in bowl, mix, bake. Those are the best kinds of recipes!

The only difference was my use of flours. I ran out of regular whole wheat flour, and ended up using wholegrain spelt flour. It has a different taste and texture to whole wheat flours, and it did make a difference in the cake.

As shown on the flour packaging:

Ancient relative of modern wheat, spelt grain, triticum speltum, was widely grown by the Romans. This 100% wholegrain flour has complex flavours and bakes a delicious loaf.

The Results

I was worried that the mayonnaise would give the cake a tangy after-taste, but I couldn’t taste anything out of the ordinary. In fact, the cake turned out very light and flavourful. The spelt flour was too bitty, making the cake itself taste a bit grainy and with a slight wheaty, nutty taste. I would expect that from a cake made with any whole wheat flour, but I would have preferred a finer grain flour than what I used.

The Verdict

This is definitely a good cake. It’s easy to make, and chances are you’ll have all the ingredients in your house without having to make a special trip to get anything. On those days when you want cake or need to take cake to a function and suddenly ran out of eggs, this is a perfect substitute.

I would try it with a finer whole wheat flour, to see if that improves the texture. If you aren’t a big whole wheat flour fan, using half wheat and half white flour would work just as well.

The Rating

4/5

Easy to bake, great flavour and texture. Experiment with different flours.