A love Affair with chocolate.

As a kid, I always loved candies. Growing up, my parents would serve us both corn porridge and lactated cacao powder. So I really started eating chocolate when I was 12 years old, when I attended a boarding school. Sometimes I had to make food provisions, which is how I discovered chocolate bars. The only thing I knew then was that it was made out of cacao but I really liked it. I thought it was so great since my Dad was a cacao grower and at the time in his farm, he was harvesting yearly about a ton of cacao.

Years later, as an adult, during my different trips, whether professional or social, chocolate became a companion that I would always carry in my purse. For quite some times I liked milk chocolate but during my fifties, I discovered the virtues of dark chocolate which became my favourite!

And now there’s ASCHENTI COCOA, labour fruit of Christian and Christelle. It’s such a joy for me to witness the beginning of this amazing story… An exotic chocolate production made from natural beans, so pure and fresh, harvested in Cameroon. The idea of this Cacao Sponge Cake made with Aschenti Cocoa powder came while I was attending a session where Christian was pressing cacao butter. He obtained the oil on one end and the powder on the other end.

The uniqueness of this recipe comes from the purity of the cacao powder, which has not been subject to any transformation and as such still has a bitter taste. I would love to know in the comments what was your first encounter with chocolate and which one is your favourite.

Cooking time: 40 min

Ingredients:
- 3 cups of Aschenti Cocoa unsweetened powder
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup of water
- 1 cup of unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup Whipped cream
- 5 eggs
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 2 pinches of nutmeg powder (or your preferred flavour)
- 1 pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F).
Moisten Aschenti Cacao powder with a cup of water.
Separate egg yolks, whisk together baking powder, Aschenti cacao powder, nutmeg and flour.
In a mixing bowl combine egg yolks with sugar and then butter. Beat together with an electric mixer. Add eggs, whipped cream, salt and flour mixture in batches mixing until combined.
Whisk Aschenti cacao powder and then add it to the mix.
Last but not least, whisk the white eggs until pale and fluffy then add to the mixture.
Spread evenly into the baking pan and bake for 40 min.
Remove from the oven and let it cool before serving.




Note: it goes well with a cup of tea or milk or even with some caramel sauce on top. We love to support local makers so we used Gourmet Inspiration Salted Caramel Whiskey Sauce.