A very chocolate cake with chickpea flour, sweet potato icing and coconut bacon chips

I have to admit that chickpea flour is truly magical (and healthy!). If you haven’t tried to bake and cook with it yet, you really have to. This flour binds ingredients like no other: it’s best for coating, when mixed with a few tablespoons of water it can replace eggs, and it adds crunchiness to every fried food (think about the pakoras or falafels!). It can be used to prepare fluffy pancakes or Italian-style oven baked omelettes like socca or farinata. It’s also great for baking: cakes grow like crazy and the results are similar to baking with the regular wheat flour. The cake prepared with chickpea flour is a fulfilling meal and a protein bomb at the same time. But there is one important thing about chickpea flour: please, don’t try it raw, even in the sweet cake mix! The taste of it is really… special. Or, you know what? Give it a try, you’ll find out what I’m talking about. 🙂

I must admit that I’m really satisfied with this chocolate chickpea cake. It’s well balanced, very chocolate, moist, not too sweet and also gluten-free! The crunchy, slightly salty addition of coconut bacon chips and fresh sweet strawberries are doing the job too. In the end, it’s also a very easy cake – you can mix the cake ingredients in a single bowl, and in the meantime you can bake a sweet potato for the icing and coconut bacon chips for the topping. So, let’s do some baking! It’s the first cake recipe on this website, so I’m a bit excited.

Ingredients for a round baking form, diameter 20/21 cm.

Chocolate chickpea flour cake
  • 2 cups of chickpea flour
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 3/4 cup of cocoa powder
  • 1 flat tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of baking soda
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tsp of vanilla sugar
  • 1 & 1/2 cup of plant-based milk (about 375ml)
  • 1/3 cup of rapeseed oil (about 80ml)

  1. Heat the oven to 180C.

  2. Sift the flour into a bowl – we don’t want to have any flour lumps!

  3. Add all dry and wet ingredients to the bowl, and then mix thoroughly with a whisk or a mixer for 3 minutes to combine everything.

  4. Pour the chocolate cake mix into a paper-lined baking form.

  5. Put the form into the preheated oven for about 40 minutes (use a wooden stick to check if the dough is still wet inside).

A sweet potato chocolate icing: recipe here

Sweet potato halves can be placed in the oven at the same time as the chocolate cake. 

I recommend thinning the icing from the above recipe with an additional 2/3 tablespoons of plant-based milk. The icing will thicken slightly over time.

Crispy coconut bacon chips

  • 1/2 cup of coconut chips
  • 1 tbsp of soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp of rapeseed oil
  • 1 tbsp of agave syrup
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika

  1. Put all the ingredients in a bowl to create a sweet and salty marinade and then gently rub the coconut chips with this mixture.

  2. Spread a layer of marinated coconut chips so they don’t touch each other on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

  3. Bake at 180 degrees for 78 minutes, flip them after 3/4 minutes so that they are roasted on both sides evenly. Coconut chips can also be baked together with a cake, just be careful, because the chips burn easily!

The Grand Finale 

Cut the cooled cake horizontally with a large knife to create the top and bottom layers of the cake. Put a thick layer of the icing onto the bottom layer and gently place the top layer of the cake on the icing and press it lightly.

Leave a few extra spoons of the icing. Spreading the icing on the top can be done quite freely, because everything will be covered with some coconut chips bacon and fresh strawberries.

Tastes best when chilled. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3/4 days.

Still hungry?