Chocolate Chai Masala Cake w/ Jaggery Hazelnut Topping (GF) (DF)

Spice up your chocolate cravings with this Indian-inspired cake from Nik Sharma in his cookbook Season: Big Flavors, Beautiful Foods.

The recipe is published online here. I found the jaggery chunks, a concentrated cane sugar containing minerals and vitamins, at an Indian grocery store, and made the chai masala from scratch (recipe below).

For gluten free and dairy free, I made a few substitutions to the ingredient list (see below). Use whichever ingredients you prefer - it’s still a moist, dense, rich cake that pairs perfectly with its hazelnut topping.

My Paleo Marin Rating: 4.8 Persimmons

For the Chai Masala:

Jaggery Image Paraj Organics (online)

2 Tablespoons ginger powder
2 Tablespoons ground cardamom
1 Teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 Teaspoons ground cloves
1 1/2 Teaspoons ground black pepper
3 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon saffron

For Substitutions:

For the bread flour:
Put 3 1/2 Tablespoons of arrowroot powder in a 2 cup measurer; fill the remaining space with Cup4Cup Gluten Free flour; then shift ingredients together into a large bowl.

For the sugar (reduced amount):
1/2 cup jaggery sugar, grated
1/2 cup Muscavado sugar

For the milk: (non-diary)
Califia Betterhalf Coconut Cream & Almondmilk

For the Yogurt: (non-dairy)
Kite Hill Plain Yogurt

For the Butter: (non-dairy)
Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks

#paleo #Indian #cake #chocolate #chai #masala #glutenfree #dairyfree #halloween

My Paleo Marin Rating 1-5 Persimmons

I try out these recipes so you don't have to (and modify them for Paleo where possible). The rating will reflect my opinion of the final result in terms of taste, ease of preparation, nutrition, and sometimes, cost.