chocolate cake | Roxy's Kitchen

I was feeling experimental yesterday so I decided to try out a microwave cake. This was an old favourite in the pre-LCHF Roxy Kitchen household (although back then it was a syrup sponge with custard), so I had a go at a low-carb version.

Makes 1 large mug cake (carbs = 6 g)

Ingredients:
20 g butter (unsalted)
1 egg
10 g 85% (or higher if you like) chocolate
10 g almond butter (about 1 heaped tsp)
30 g ground almonds (about 3 tbsp)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp 100% cocoa powder
Pinch of salt

Place the butter in a large mug (or small cereal bowl) and microwave for 10 – 20 s until the butter has melted. Break up the chocolate and add to the butter. Microwave for a further 10 s and stir until the chocolate has melted. Add the egg and mix well. (At this point you could also add some sweetener/sugar/honey/syrup if you like)

Now add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Place in the microwave for about 90 s (ours is a 900 W), or until the cake is springy to the touch (and doesn’t squelch when you prod it).

Serve immediately, with lashings of cream!

Having not done any “proper” baking in a while, I was very excited to bake a birthday cake for one of my friends at the weekend. I may have got a bit over-excited and baked an uber-chocolated giant 3-layer cake, but I managed not to eat any of it (and especially pleased that I didn’t eat the leftover raw cake mix, which is possibly one of my favourite things).

What I was aiming for (the recipes in this book are awesome, by the way. Well, unless you’re low-carb, then probably not so good.):

My version (replacing the vanilla buttercream with white chocolate ganache, and grated white chocolate – not cheese – instead of honeycomb for the topping):

I made sure I had a massive breakfast (two eggs and two bacons with leeks and tomatoes, yum) before I took it into the office so that I wouldn’t be tempted to have a slice. Although, having gone nearly two months without sugar, you can understand my trepidation at driving 50 miles after eating a slab of sugary chocolatey cake! It did make me a bit sad though, so I came home and made some lamb kofta burgers for dinner to cheer me up.

Lamb kofta burgers

Servings: 6 burgers
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Ingredients:
500 g lamb mince
1 large onion, very finely chopped (a deviation from proper koftas but I like onions)
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Butter for frying
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp mixed herbs (I didn’t have any fresh mint)
Olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 170°C, and line a tray with parchment paper.

Fry the onion and garlic in the butter until soft. Add to the lamb, along with the herbs and spices, and mix thoroughly with your hands, getting very messy in the process!

Using some olive oil on your hands to stop the lamb from sticking to you, divide the mixture into 6 and shape into burgers; I made 6 big balls and then flattened them (they will look massive, but they do shrink when cooking). At this stage you can leave them in the fridge until you’re ready to cook them, or freeze the burgers with sheets of parchment paper in between to stop them from sticking together.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the juices run clear.

Serve with a feta cheese salad and homemade fat-ziki (equal measures of sour cream and yoghurt, mixed with diced cucumber and fresh mint, if you have it, but it’s still nice without!), not forgetting to use the lamb juices as a dressing.