Amazing Quinoa Brownie Cake

I have been cooking and eating Quinoa for quite some time, but I have been wanting to try a new recipe I read about for some time. I wanted to make Chocolate Quinoa Cake. This cake is made using Quinoa seed, no the flour.

If you haven't heard of Quinoa yet, its time you did. Quinoa is the current media favorite. You see it cropping up in all the magazines and cook books, and for good reason! Quinoa is gluten free, making it suitable for those with Celiacs. It is a low glycemic-index carb, which makes it great for diabetics. Quinoa is a complete protein - great for the vegetarian in your life.

There are several different types of Quinoa, most of which grow high in the mountains of South America, the native home of Quinoa. South American varieties include White Quinoa, Red Quinoa and Black Quinoa. Due to its unique growing requirements, Quinoa does not grow in the USA and only one company grows it in Canada. I am using the Canadian Grown Golden Quinoa, purchased from Northern Quinoa Corp. in Saskatchewan, Canada. It can be found at http://www.quinoa.com/. While most Quinoa is rather tasteless (like white rice), Golden Quinoa has a nutty flavor that lends itself well to baked goods!

So lets get cooking!!

The first step in this amazing concoction is to cook the Quinoa. Since I am using Golden Quinoa, I am jut boiling my Quinoa with equal amount of water until done. The water cooks off and you can see the little "tails" of the Quinoa seed uncurl.

 Golden Quinoa cooking away!

Once the Quinoa has cooked and cooled, I began to assemble the rest of the ingredients. They were pretty simple, soy milk (family is lactose intolerant!), water, eggs, extract, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt and butter.

The rest of the ingredients!

To assemble the recipe:

I blended Soy Milk, water and rum extract in the blender until smooth. I added the cooled Quinoa and butter to the blender and blended until smooth.

I then mixed the following dry ingredients in a bowl: sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the ingredients in the blender to the bowl and mix well.

Mixed ingredients poured and ready for the oven.

Once ingredients are well blended, pour them into a greased pan with parchment paper on the bottom. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes or until done.

Just out of the oven...

Cut and about to try it out.....

Yummy!! Wow is that rich!

This cake ends up with a very brownie-like texture and it is VERY rich! So how did it go over? Only Two hours after coming out of the oven, the cake was almost entirely gone!! I saved a few pieces for morning lunches, but I had to fight to get those!!

The recipe is easy and quick to make. It is a wonderful alternative to the typical wheat chocolate cake and way richer. If you did not tell people what it was made of they would never know that it didn't have flour. But they would rave about the taste!!

So here is the Recipe.

Chocolate Quinoa Cake

2 cups cooked quinoa

1/3 cup soy milk

1/3 cup water

4 eggs

1 tsp rum extract

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 & 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 & 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Mix soy milk, water, eggs and rum extrat in blender until smooth. Add Quinoa and butter and blend until smooth. If thick, add a bit more water to mixture.

In bowl blend cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add contents from blender and mix well.

Grease baking pan and line bottom with parchment paper. Pour batter into pan and bake for 40 - 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Let the cake cool completely and the turn upside down on plate and remove parchment paper before cutting and serving. 

Decorate as you wish, though this cake doesn't need it!! It is amazing all on its own!!

PLEASE NOTE: This is a variation/modification of a recipe found in "Quinoa 365" by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming.