Carob makes a great alternative to chocolate, though it tastes a little different. In the UK, organic carob powder is available on Amazon, from Hatton Hill Organic and Buy Wholefoods Online as well as a few other vendors.

You will need a flour for this cake. In the UK you will find Dove’s Farm Spelt Flour is widely available at supermarkets and does not contain the usual additives. Alternatively, Stoate’s plain flour is currently available online at bakerybits.co.uk.

Ingredients

• 125g butter
• 150g brown sugar
• 1tsp vanilla powder
• 100g carob powder
• 120ml of boiling water
• 2 medium sized eggs
• 1tsp baking powder
• 200g Stoate’s plain flour (you could use any other wheat flour free from additives or spelt flour)
• large pinch of sea salt

For the icing

• 4 tbsp icing sugar
• 2 tbsp carob powder
• 2 tbsp boiling water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 360F
2. Butter a ceramic loaf tin or other vessel that does not have a PTFE ‘non-stick’ coating. You could use a muffin tin with paper cases, so that the cake does not touch the PTFE, but would need to reduce the baking time as these would cook faster.
3. Add the sugar, butter and vanilla, to a food processor and mix well
4. In a separate bowl whisk together the boiling water and carob powder
5. Add the water/carob mixture to the food processor and blend
6. Add the eggs, flour, salt and baking powder to the food processor and mix well again
7. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until a cocktail stick or piece of spaghetti comes out clean when inserted
9. The cake is not especially sweet so you may wish to add the icing. Do this by mixing the icing ingredients in a cup with a spoon (you will need to sieve the icing sugar or you will get the white lumps visible in the photo!)