Chocolate Avocado Cake

By mitzzy

Yes, you read that right. I have been experimenting for years trying to perfect a moist, lucious mouth feel chocolate cake and I think I finally hit on something. It all started with an avocado that I had tucked away in the refrigerator and had forgotten about. When I did find it, it was soft -- too soft to slice. I could mash it, and make it into a dip of sorts but I decided to use it as an ingredient for chocolate cake. I reasoned that avocados are not only good for you, but they are also high in (good) fat, so instead of butter in a cake (bad fat), why not use an avocado?

I played my hunch and in it went with the wet ingredients, and I beat them until they were smooth. Since there were no eggs in the cake, I was really relying on the avocado to create that velvet texture that I was after. Well, I am going to let you be the judge. Make the cake and frost with whatever you like. I used a ganache and for the cupcakes, a simple confectioners icing with toasted coconut on top. It's a delicious surprise. And I learned that avocados are just not for guacamole anymore!

Ingredients

• Butter and flour an 8 x 8, two inch deep square cake pan. Fit a piece of parchment paper in the pan and spray it. Set pan aside. Or to make cupcakes, line cupcake pans with cupcake papers and set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 350F
• 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons cocoa (Perugina if possible but Hershey’s will do)
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 large ripe avocado, mashed (about 2/3 cup)
• 1 tablespoon light olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Details

Servings 8

Preparation

Step 1

Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. With a hand mixer on low speed beat in the avocado oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water until smooth. Pour the mixture into the prepared pans. Or fill paper line cup cake pans 2/3 full with the batter.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Do not over bake the cake. It should be firm to the touch, and a cake skewer inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean. If making cupcakes, bake them for 12-15 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out clean.

Put the cake pan on a cooling rack, and cool for 15 to 20 minutes before removing the it from the pan to cool completely. Frost when cool with ganache below.

Ganache

1 cup heavy cream
7 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon hazelnut, almond or vanilla extract

Heat the cream in a saucepan. Stir in the chocolate and mix until smooth. Stir in the extract. Position the cake on a cake stand lined with wax paper. Pour the ganache over the cake and allow to cover cake freely.

Decorate with berries or candied flowers.

If making cupcakes decorate with a simple confectioners sugar frosting and sprinkle the tops of each cupcake with toasted coconut.