Strawberries are in season and they are delicious. As strawberries are one of the most sprayed produce, make sure you buy organic wherever possible. If not, please wash them in a solution of baking soda and water or food grade hydrogen peroxide. For this recipe select firm but ripe strawberries.

The next key ingredient for this cake is  almond flour and this is a wardrobe staple in my kitchen. If you are gluten free then seriously this is heaven sent for you. And let me tell you the best part of this cake – this is refined sugar free as its sweetened with maple syrup and instead of butter it uses olive oil. Can it seriously get any better than this?

Ok, lets begin then:

What you will need:

1. 2 cups of almond meal or flour
2. 4 large organic / free range eggs
3. 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
4. 2/3 cup of maple syrup + 2 tbsp for the strawberry puree
5. 1 tbsp of orange zest
6. 1 tsp of baking powder
7. 1/2 tsp baking soda
8. 1/4 tsp of ground cinnamon
9. 1/4 tsp of sea salt
10. 10-15 strawberries that are chopped + 10-12  whole ones for decoration
11. A springform baking pan – 8 inch
12. Baking paper to line the tray

Process:

1. Preheat the oven at 160 degrees celsius / 330 degrees fahrenheit
2. In a saucepan, add the chopped strawberries along with 2tbsp of maple syrup and let the strawberries break down. Once they have softened, puree them in a blender.
3. In a bowl beat the eggs and then add the oil to it along with the maple syrup and orange zest. Mix it well.
4. In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients together ( Flour + baking powder+ baking soda+ sea salt + cinnamon powder).
5. Add the dry ingredient mix to the wet mix and then mix them together. Don’t over mix as you want the mix to be light and airy.
6. Line your baking tray with parchment paper and then add the mix to the bowl. Tap the tray to ensure that the mix is evenly spread.
7. Then add the strawberry puree to the centre of the tray and with a fork spread it out in random directions. The idea is to mix the puree in the cake mix unevenly.
8. Now bake the cake in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes. Check if its baked properly by inserting a skewer in the cake and if it comes out clean its baked.
9. Decorate the cake with some fresh strawberries and its ready to enjoy.

Hope you enjoy this delicious and refined sugar free cake.