Chocolate Chickpea Cake

So...yeah...can we talk about chocolate cake?

It's delicious, right?

Yes, it is.

And... of course it is a bazillion calories and full of sugar and fat and aaaaaalll of that fantastic stuff that tastes so amazing but we aren't supposed to eat too much of.

*bah humbug*

I have some good news for you. I found an almost completely flour-less, fat-less, but still moist and delicious chocolate cake.

It's made even healthier by using coconut oil, coconut sugar, and almond flour.

I saw this recipe over at Hungry Little Girl and thought I would give it a whirl. Jutta's version is a little bit different from mine as I had to sub a bunch of ingredients so, if you want her version, be sure to pop over to her blog and check it out.

If you want another interesting chickpea recipe - check out our Chocolate Chip Chickpea Cookies.

Chocolate Chickpea Cake

(Adapted from Hungry Little Girl)

Ingredients

1 (19 oz) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained (about 2 cups)

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsp baking cocoa

1/2 cup coconut palm sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp almond flour

1 Tbsp coconut oil, melted

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup pecans, toasted & chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Spray an 8 X 8 inch pan with cooking spray, set aside.

In a food processor or blender, process chickpeas until smooth. Add in eggs and vanilla and process until well combined and smooth.

In a large bowl, combine cocoa, sugar, baking powder, salt, and almond flour. Whisk to combine. Stir in coconut oil until well combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

In a small, microwave safe bowl, melt chocolate chips in microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth.

Scrape the melted chocolate chips into the batter and stir to combine.

Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.

Sprinkle evenly with chopped pecans.

Bake at 350 for approx 25 - 30 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove from heat and let cool on wire rack.

This is sooooo moist and dense - almost like a brownie. In fact, I'm pretty sure you could get away with calling this a brownie if you wanted to.

A couple of notes -

1. You can use regular oil if you don't have coconut oil.

2. You can use 1/4 cup brown sugar + 1/4 cup stevia instead of coconut sugar (or 1/2 cup brown sugar)

3. You can use coconut flour instead of almond flour OR leave all the flour out entirely and cook a bit longer.

4. I added the pecans on top to fancy it up a bit. They are entirely optional.

*FYI - If you change the ingredients you will change the nutritional info*

I figured out the nutritional info on Myfitnesspal. For 1/8th of the entire pan it is:

257 calories, 35 carbs, 11 fat, 7 protein.

Not too shabby, right? That's for a good size piece of cake!

I also decided to check what a similar sized piece of "normal" chocolate cake is..... 488 calories, 73 carbs, 21 fat, 7 protein. 

So, this cake is about half the calories, half the carbs, and half the fat.

Nice.

You are not going to feel like you are missing out on anything by eating this cake either. It is rich, fudgy, moist, and chocolaty. Everything a chocolate cake should be. :)

Looking for some amazing links? Check out Carol's Chatter.