Prune and chocolate olive oil cake. Gluten-free

So this is a new one for me. I'm entering one of my recipes into a contest. Specifically the Del Monte Blogger Recipe Carnival. Fun as it was making this, I have to admit the lure of the prizes was just as much of an inspiration. 

The rules were simple - make something out the one or more Del Monte products and link it up on Indiblogger and to the World Foody FB page. The thing is I use Del Monte products almost all the time, so it didn't feel there was much of a challenge to it. The peaches and the corn kernels are my favourite. I always have a tin of them in my pantry. And same goes for the olive oil. There's a bottle lying around all the time. 

But I wanted to use ingredients that I wasn't very comfortable with and the Prunes just checked the right box. A salad seemed just too easy. Ice cream was another thought that crossed my mind but I figured I should do something that's slightly out of my comfort zone, but really not quite. I remember reading about a chocolate and prune cake, which had sounded quite lovely. 

So after fiddling around with ingredients, I figured making it gluten-free with olive-oil might make it a lot more poncy and so much more of a challenge. This is my own recipe and the cake turned out to be very rich. It had a mildly olive oil taste to it but the prune-flavour came through nice and strong.

 Fudgy, I say fudgy © Cookaroo

I made it for a friend's lunch this Saturday, but carried with me alternate desserts if people didn't like it. Turned out I was a bit stupid and really didn't need to. The cake had a lovely texture - fudgy and thick and it just melted in the mouth. I served it with a bit of sweetened cream because it off-set the tartness of the prunes. Plus, because it's gluten-free, it means everyone can eat it.

 All in all this recipe turned out to be a keeper! So yay!

Hello! Am gluten-free © Cookaroo

Prune and Chocolate Olive Oil Cake. Gluten-free
Makes 1,  9-inch cake

Ingredients
160 gms Del Monte prunes
4 tblsp brandy

250 gms baking chocolate. Minimum 44 per cent solids
2 tblsp butter

1/3 cup + 2 tblsp rice flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1/3 cup Del Monte extra virgin olive oil
3 eggs seperated

Directions

1. In a microwave safe bowl, zap the Del Monte prunes along with the brandy for 1 minute. Set aside till it swells up, about 20 minutes. 
2. Once the prunes are ready, either chop them into tiny dices or blitz them smooth in a processor. I did the latter. Set aside. 
3. Chop the chocolate and put it in a microwavable bowl. Zap it in intervals of 20 seconds until melted. Add the butter to it. Set aside.
4. Measure out all the dry ingredients - rice flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. 
5. Separate the eggs. To the yolks, add the Del Monte extra virgin olive oil and milk. Add this to the dry mixture alongwith the chocolate and pureed prunes.
6. Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff. Fold into the chocolate mixture until they are just incorporated. 
7. Pour into a parchment-paper lined tin and bake at 180 C degrees for 60 minutes. Or until toothpick comes out cleanish.
8. Cool. Serve at room temperature with sweetened whipped cream

Carry me home tonight © Cookaroo