Dessert: Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Ingredients

2/3 cup regular olive oil, plus more for greasing
6 tablespoons good-quality unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1/2 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups almond meal (flour) or 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt
1 cup superfine sugar
3 eggs
1 X 9-inch springform
cake pan

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Grease your springform pan with a little oil and line the base with parchment paper. Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or pitcher and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little. In another smallish bowl, combine the almond meal (or all-purpose flour) with the baking soda and pinch of salt. Put the sugar, olive oil, and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes, until you have a pale-primrose, aerated, and thickened cream. Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in, you can slowly tip in the almond meal (or all-purpose flour) mixture. Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very center, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it. Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its pan, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the pan. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a dessert.

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