Can I Make A Chocolate Coffee Olive Oil Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake (from NIGELLISSIMA) can be made gluten free, with ground almonds (almond meal) or alternatively with regular flour. The sponge itself could have some espresso powder added. The coffee flavour enhances the flavour of the chocolate rather than giving a strong mocha taste. We would suggest using 1 teaspoon of espresso powder for the cake and adding it to the cocoa powder at step 2.

We are not sure if you intend to make two layers of the cake and andwich it, but we would mention that the gluten-free version is very tender and will be difficult to stack. You could put some buttercream on top of the cake, but as the cake is already quite rich and moist we feel that adding a buttercream could be a little too much. You could top the cake instead with some whipped cream flavoured with coffee essence and maybe a little coffee liqueur. Or serve with Nigella's One-Step No-Churn Coffee Ice Cream. The flour version of the cake is slightly plainer and would probably be better with the buttercream. We haven't tried layering the flour version of the cake but it will be a little more robust than the gluten-free cake.