Gluten Free Chocolate Quinoa Cake

Originally posted 7 July 2021 

Definitely needing a distraction from the 791 new Covid cases today. Instead of what's happening in Fiji, let me tell you about this flourless chocolate cake we made with quinoa. Baking is a dark art, while I don't mess with the recipes the way I do with the stove top stuff, I did add a teaspoon of instant coffee to this. It came out oh so good, and I think I need to make it again soon. 

Prep: 15 mins Cook: 40 mins Additional: 30 mins Total: 1 hr 25 mins

Ingredients

• 2 cups cold cooked quinoa (1 cup quinoa, 2 cups water)
• ¾ cup melted butter
• 4 eggs
• ⅓ cup milk
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup chocolate chips
• ½ cup chopped pecans (Optional)
• 1 tsp instant coffee 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a rectangular 9x13 cake pan.
2. Blend quinoa, butter, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract together in a blender until smooth. Seriously, blend that quinoa until it's smooth as can be. 
3. Combine dry ingredients sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Stir blended quinoa mixture into sugar mixture until batter is well combined. Fold chocolate chips and pecans into batter; pour into the prepared pan.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool cake on a wire rack.