Chickpea Cake...no really

Ok I know, I'm a lil' late on this one...my sincerest apologies! BUT! I've been a lil' busy, and I have a lil' news...Next week my friends, I'm having some of my more unusual designs (See Plant Cake, Cup Noodle etc.) In a gallery in Leicester Square! It's part of an event called The Mad Artists' Tea Party sponsored by Tate and Lyle promoting their fair trade sugars and it should be a lil' bit good...

SO! 'Yes that all sounds rather swell but where's this week's post?!' I hear you cry, well, worry no more, tis' here! Chickpea Cake!

No I havn't gone all crazy and healthy on you, I wouldn't be that cruel. I did in fact stumble across a weird and wonderful recipe for this Chickpea Cake whilst typing in 'unusual cake recipes' into Google on a wet and windy day and, having a can of chickpeas 'spare' in my emergency cupboard of cans of nameless things I will never eat but will probably put in a cake one day, I ventured forth to concoct this mystical sounding cake...

First thing I noticed about the recipe is its lack of butter. Now, either chickpeas are actually little pods of butter, or there's something magical about them that renders them a successful, and healthy (sorry) substitute to butter...but I'm not guaranteeing it'll be a tasty alternative...

So! First things first, chuck a load of chick peas (just thought I'd add, I don't think they're peas farmed by little chicks, unless they're genius chicks...I don't actually know why they're called chickpeas, but no doubt the mine of 'facts' that is Wikipedia will know...or guess...)

Then blitz the lil' guys into a smooth puree. This does take like, 5 minutes. So I suggest finding out where chickpeas come from during this valuable time...Unless you really love staring at chickpeas being blended...which I have to admit is one of my past times...

Drop a rather appropriate egg into the mix. Egg...being of the chick origin...adding it to chick peas...It's a stretch but yeah, chicks...eggs...moving on.

Then for the best part of any recipe, add a load of cocoa powder! Guaranteed to cover up any foul, or delicious tasting pureed chickpeas!

Blitzy blitzy...

Fortunatley, or unfortunately...the mix at this stage isn't exactly appetising, so at least you'll be left with a lot of it to actually make the cake

Plop into a pan...

Ok, it's not one of those sink your face into it and just eat your way through to the bottom kind of cakes, because it doesn't rise a hell of a lot. Who'd have thought chickpeas wern't a natural raising agent? But a ton of chocolate cream cheese topping soon makes up for this humble cakes lack of height, or 'vertical challenges' in life...

Ok, I'll be honest. This cake didn't taste amazing, but then I do think it's down to eater preference. It's quite a bitter cake, not really 'chocolatey' as such. BUT! Fear not, cover it in enough chocolate cream cheese and all thoughts of 'ew, of course this cake doesn't taste good, it's full of chickpeas. I hated chickpeas before and now, not only do I still hate them, but I've wasted what could have been a delicious chocolate cake...'

It's a Marmite cake. You love it or you hate it. Personally, at least I need no longer wonder what Chickpea Cake tastes like...Now to ponder over mashed potato cake...