Olive Oil Chocolate Chiffon Cake

And yes I turned it into cupcakes! 🙂

My mom gave me this Angela Day recipe which she saw in the Monday 03 June 2013 issue of The Star’s Verve.  Angela was running a series for using olive oil in baking as a healthier alternative to other oils.

I love the idea of healthier baking, just wish it worked out more cost effective though as olive oil isn’t a particularly cheap product to use.   I would also stick to using a mild flavoured olive oil as the more robust oils may alter the taste of the cake.

The original recipe called for a chocolate glaze, which would have been lovely but sadly I didn’t have any dark chocolate on hand so made my standard icing.

The cupcakes turned out beautifully and I enjoyed lots of compliments when I served them for dessert with friends.

Olive Oil Chocolate Chiffon Cake (Cupcakes)

The mixture made 18 muffin sized cupcakes

Ingredients

80ml cocoa powder
125ml hot water
250ml flour
10ml baking powder
125ml castor sugar
3ml salt
4 eggs separated
125ml olive oil
80ml extra castor sugar

Chocolate glaze
100g dark chocolate chopped
100ml cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Mix together the cocoa and hot water and set aside to cool.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a bowl.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the egg yolks, olive oil and cooled cocoa mixture and mix until smooth.
5. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then beat in the extra castor sugar.
6. Fold this mixture into the cocoa mixture.
7. Pour into an ungreased chiffon cake tin alternatively divide the mixture amongst 18 muffin tins lined with paper cases.
8. Bake the cake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean alternatively if baking the cupcakes, bake for 10 minutes.
9. Combine the chocolate and cream in a bowl and microwave on 50% power for 2 minutes and stir well until smooth.
10. Refrigerate until thickened then pour over the cake or cupcakes. (The glaze is thinner than a ganache).