Red bean cake
grownandgathered
This cake is a creation from the road, inspired by having few ingredients and minimal equipment. So it's really easy. Literally you just mix ingredients together and bake! It's also great for kids lunch boxes and is dairy-free, gluten-free, and refined-sugar-free. It's a winner.
We have been on the road for a little over a month now, and it's inspiring us in a whole new way. Just being inspired by the food we find, that's local and what we have at any given time, is making us create things we wouldn't normally at home. We made this cake while we were staying in this little cabin in the bush, just before we hit the road again - so we could have an on-road snack! To be honest, I wasn't 100% sure if it would work seeing as we had so few ingredients, we didn't even have a baking tin, and we were working with a wood-fired oven, with no temperature gauge, but surprisingly, we came up with a pretty fool-proof and delicious cake.
To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to call it a cake, pudding, or brownie (and I'm still feeling conflicted ha). In essence it's a little bit like a pudding in flavour and texture - but a little more cake-like as an experience!
We used red beans (adzuki beans), which makes a very specific flavour. We also recipe tested it with black beans, which worked just as well, it just had a slightly different flavour and was a much darker coloured cake. We have had it hot and cold and have put it in our nieces and nephews lunch boxes, and it's been a winner all round. Let us know your favourite version!
Field notes
on beans
Bizarrely, Australian farmers have never really jumped on the bean-growing wagon. For some reason they've taken to growing chickpeas and lentils, but only very rarely can Australian grown beans be found. Not sure why given what an easy broad-acre crop they are to grow - but whatever the reason, and no matter where you live out there, do your best to find locally grown dried beans if you can, and if you can't just bare in mind how far those beans have travelled to reach your belly! Adzuki beans aren't often found in conventional supermarkets, but are readily available in health food stores or Asian supermarkets.
For a good guide on the proper preparation of dried beans - head over here :)
Serves 4 - 6 (12 small slices) // Time 10 minutes prep + 30 minutes baking
Recipe.
Ingredients
¾ - 1 cup cooked adzuki beans (equal to a little less than one 400g tin)
3 eggs, whisked
4 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup cocoa powder
½ cup rapadura/muscovy sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅔ cup almond meal
A pinch of good salt
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Oil a 20cm x 10cm baking tray, set aside.
In a medium bowl, add beans and mash really well, until it makes a smooth mash (basically, mash them as much as you can!). Add eggs and whisk with either a fork or hand whisk to combine well.
Add remaining ingredients to the bowl and whisk together well. The mixture should be a smooth paste, with a few lumps from the beans.
Pour the mixture into the baking tray. Bake for 30-35 minutes. The cake is ready when you place a skewer into the centre of the cake and it comes out mainly clean (it should be just a tiny bit sticky!).
Serve immediately or allow to cool in the tin, before cutting and placing into an airtight container and storing it in the fridge. The cake should be a little bit pudding like in texture, moist and taste almost custardy.
Also great served with cream or ice cream!
