Home / Blog / How to indulge with cocoa the guilt-free way

How to indulge with cocoa the guilt-free way

Reading time: 4 min   
Published: 16/09/20

GUEST BLOG By FLORA

We all love to indulge now and then, but it’s not fun feeling guilty afterwards. Whatever your vice, you want to be able to enjoy it and not feel too bad – to have your cake and eat it! Luckily there are a lot of ingredients that can make cooking super tasty that are also really good for you.  

Cocoa is a wonderful natural product that has lots of great health benefits. It’s a great source of nutrients including selenium, potassium and zinc while also containing flavanols that can help lower blood pressure. With this in mind, we’ve looking into healthy and tasty ways to use cocoa! So let’s indulge with cocoa the guilt-free way with our top 3 recipes:

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Who said you need butter and milk to make the best chocolate cake? This easy vegan chocolate cake recipe is spongy, light but incredibly rich at the same time. Baked with love, this recipe uses a combination of lemon juice, soya milk, melted Flora and golden syrup to act as the binding agent and create a moist and delicious sponge that can be topped with an indulgent chocolate icing.

Flourless Espresso Dark Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Cake

  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 300 millilitres soya milk
  • 275 grams plain flour
  • 25 grams Food Thoughts Organic Cocoa Powder
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 175 grams caster sugar
  • 3 tbsps golden syrup

Icing

Method

Preheat the oven to 180° C, 160° C fan, Gas mark 4.

Add the lemon juice to the milk and set aside. Sieve together the flour, cocoa powder, caster sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a large mixing bowl.

Pour the soya milk, melted Flora, and golden syrup over the flour mixture and stir until it becomes a smooth batter. Halve the mixture between two 20cm greased and base lined sandwich tins and bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes.

Check to see if your vegan chocolate cake is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre of each half. If it comes out clean, then it’s done! Once baked, leave the cakes in the tins for 5 minutes before turning out and cooling on a wire rack.

Meanwhile, make the icing by beating together all the icing ingredients until it reaches a smooth consistency.

When the cakes are completely cold, sandwich them together with half of the icing. Spread the remaining icing over the top of the cake and decorate to your taste, or just leave as it is. We finished ours with fresh raspberries and a touch of sieved Food Thoughts Organic Cacao Powder. Can you think of a more indulgent use of cocoa the guilt-free way?

Vegan Dark Cacao Chocolate Fudge

vegan dark chocolate fudge

Ingredients

Method

Line a dish with parchment paper. Place all the ingredients in to the food processor bowl and whizz up till the texture is nice and smooth. You might need to scrape the sides off the bowl with spatula couple times so all ingredients blend evenly.

Transfer the fudge into the prepared tin, press firmly using another sheet of parchment paper. Top with desired toppings, if choose not to have any- that is fine too. Then place in the freezer to set for at least an hour before cutting in to desired size chunks. Best kept in the fridge or freezer… deep.. in the back .. where only you can find it, as we promise – it will go very quick otherwise.

Hot Chocolate

Ingredients (per person)

In a saucepan heat the cream gently being sure not to let it boil, then add the milk and mix thoroughly. Stir in the cocoa powder and whisk briskly for 2 minutes. Pour into a mug. Crumble the cacao nibs on top and serve immediately.

Those are our top recommendations for using cocoa the guilt-free way in your cooking. Try it today and you can indulge an easy vegan chocolate cake or a white cocoa mud cake in the happy knowledge that the cocoa part is actually doing your body some good!