This gluten free cake has an inexpensive ingredients that is often found in the back of your cupboard. Chickpeas are the secret ingredient for this bake. I work at an Outreach High school where we try to teach and feed our students low cost healthy food. We have a very low budget and we try to teach the students to cook within their pantry. When we first baked this cake, we did not tell the students that it was gluten free or that it was made with Chickpeas. After many staff and students had seconds, they couldn’t believe this rich, and delicate cake was made with beans!

Supplies

1 1/2 cups (300 g) *Semi sweet chocolate chips
1 Can of Chickpeas
4 Eggs
3/4 cup (156 g) White sugar
Margarine for greasing your cake pan
Cocoa or flour for dusting

*Although the recipe calls for Chocolate chips, I buy the large family chocolate bars on sale. I like baking with 72% chocolate which is very difficult to find this percentage in chips.

Step 1: Your Tools

1. Food processor
2. Cutting board
3. Chef knife or a large knife you feel comfortable using
4. Heat proof spatula
5. Large wooden spoon
6. Medium size pot and glass bowl to fit on top or a double boiler
7. 1 cup measurement
8. 3/4 cup measurement or 1/4 cup measurement
9. 1/2 cup measurement
9. Scale (if you are weighing out your chocolate)
11. Can opener
12. Strainer/ colander
13. Sifter
14. 8 inch round pan or square pan
15. Oven mitts
16. Timer
17. Toothpicks or wooden skewers
18. Cooling rack

Step 2: Preparing Your Pan

1. Preheat your oven to 350*F
2. Use some margarine (I always have some wrapped up in a small bag that I use to grease baking pans which I keep in the fridge) to grease your pan.
3. Using your sifter, place it over top of the pan and pour about 1 TBSP of cocoa into the sifter. Carefully shake the cocoa side to side.
4. Shake your pan until the cocoa covers the sides and bottom.
5. Either over a sink or garbage bin, tip your cocoa covered pan upside down and tap on the bottom of your pan with your hand, getting rid of your excess cocoa.

Tip - It is your choice to dust your pan with cocoa or flour. My rule is to choose the colour of the dust to match the colour of your mixture.

Step 3: Let’s Melt!

Please note* If your chocolate comes in a larger package than 300 g, you will need to use the weigh scale to weigh out your chocolate.

1. Using your hands, try to break up the chocolate, bang it on the counter while it is still inside the wrapper.
2. Carefully unwrap your chocolate.
3. Get a Chef knife or a large knife that you feel comfortable chopping with.
4. Use the heal of your hand and place it on top of the knife.
5. Chop the remaining chocolate into small pieces.
6. Using a heat proof bowl set over a pot with a little bit of water in the bottom. Ensure that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl.
7. Place the chocolate inside the bowl.
8. On medium heat allow the water to come to a simmering boil.
9. Using either a wooden spoon or a heat proof spatula, stir the chocolate until smooth.
10. Set the chocolate aside.

Tip - Instead of a heat proof bowl you can use a double boiler to melt the chocolate.

Step 4: The Main Event.

1. Using a can opener, open the can of chickpeas.
2. Placing a strainer or colander over the sink, pour the chickpeas into the strainer and drain.
3. Using cold water, rinse the chickpeas.
4. Using a Food Processor, combine the chickpeas, eggs and sugar; process until smooth.

Step 5: Adding the Chocolate

1. Add the melted chocolate to the chickpea mixture, blend until smooth.
2. Stop occasionally to scrape down the sides of the food processor using a spatula.
3. Make sure the chocolate is completely mixed.

Step 6: Let’s Get Ready to Bake

1. Pour the cake batter into the prepared cake pan.
2. Use a spatula to spread the mixture and ensure it is even.
3. Make sure your oven is heated to 350* F
4. Carefully open the oven door and place your chickpea cake on the top/middle rack in your oven.
5. Set your timer for timer for 40 minutes.

Step 7: Your Tasty Reward

1. When your timer goes off carefully open the oven door and take your cake pan out using oven gloves.
2. To test to see if the cake is cooked, insert a toothpick or a wood skewer in the middle of the baked treat. If dough or crumbs come out onto the toothpick/skewer, your cake is not cooked and may need a couple more minutes. Your toothpick/skewer needs to come out clean to ensure that your cake is cooked.
3. Place the hot cake on the cooling rack.
4. Allow to rest for about five minutes.
5. You can now turn your Chickpea cake out of the pan.
6. Place the cooling rack on top of your cake, holding the cake pan and rack together flip the pan over allowing the cooling rack to rest on the counter.
7. Your Chickpea cake should now be upside down. Slowly remove the pan.
8. Allow your cake to cool completely before flipping back over.
9. Enjoy your cake! This cake also freezes really well so you can save it for later.