Fair Trade Recipe - Chocolate Cake

A slice of the dense chocolate cake with some of its fair trade ingredients.

Here's another recipe using fair trade ingredients, this time a delicious flourless chocolate cake that incorporates dark chocolate, cocoa and coffee.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Adapted from a Baking Bites recipe

Ingredients

110g fair trade dark chocolate, chopped

110g unsalted butter

0.75 cup caster sugar

3 large eggs

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1.5 strong brewed fair trade coffee

0.5 cup fair trade cocoa powder (see note)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 20cm diameter springform tin with  baking paper.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter together either in a pan on the stove or in the microwave. If using the stove, put butter in first and let melt a little so that the chocolate won't burn.
3. Pour warm chocolate/butter mixture into a medium mixing bowl with the sugar. Whisk to combine. Beat in eggs one at a time, waiting until each has been fully incorporated to add the next, then mix in vanilla extract and coffee. 
4. Sift cocoa powder into the bowl and whisk until well-combined.
5. Pour into prepared cake tin.
6. Bake for 25 minutes until firm to touch. The top will have a crackly crust
7. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosed from the tin. You can serve the cake crackly side up, or invert it so that the smooth base is on show.

Enjoy!

Note: The original recipe calls for Dutch processed cocoa powder. This is cocoa powder that has been treated with an alkaline to neutralise its acidity. You can tell it apart from unalkalised cocoa powder by its darker colour. The Green and Black's organic cocoa used to make the cake pictured above is Dutch processed.

Fair Trade Cardamom Chai Cupcakes with Lemon Icing

adapted from a Baking Bites recipe

Fair Trade Chai Cupcakes pictured with a
pot of Fair Trade tea.

These cupcakes use brewed Fair Trade chai tea, with some added ground cardamom, to make a deliciously spiced cupcake that is then set off by a lemon icing glaze. The cupcakes pictured above were made using Clipper's Organic Indian Chai Teabags (available here online from the Oxfam store, or from our own shop in Bayswater).

Makes 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

0.5 tsp salt

0.5 tsp ground cardamom

113g butter, room temperature

1.25 cups caster sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

0.5 cup strongly brewed Fair Trade chai tea, room temperature

0.5 cup milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line 16 muffin cups with paper liners or grease well with margarine or butter.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and ground cardamom.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by vanilla extract. 
4. Blend in one third of the flour mixture. Add in the tea, followed by another third of the flour mixture. Add in the milk, followed by the remaining flour. Mix until all ingredients are just combined and no streaks of flour remain. Measure evenly into muffin pans.
5. Bake for 15-17 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Turn cupcakes out onto a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

To make the icing, mix 1 cup of icing sugar, with 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and the zest of one lemon. Add either liquid or icing sugar to create the desired consistency. The cupcakes pictured are decorated with a slice of crystallised ginger.

Look out for another recipe using Fair Trade products next week - it will be chocolate!