Chocolate Cloud Cake With Alternative Fats

Our answer

Nigella's Chocolate Cloud Cake (from NIGELLA BITES) is a rich and intense flourless chocolate cake. It is made with butter, sugar, eggs, chocolate and ground almonds. The butter adds flavour as well as helping the cake to become firmer as it cools.

We have not tried the cake with coconut oil and have some concerns. Coconut oil does not have the same flavour as butter, so the cake will not have quite the same taste. It also has a higher fat content than butter (100% vs butter at 80%) so is not as suitable as a direct substitute. Finally coconut oil goes from liquid to solid in a different temperature range to butter and we are not sure if this would affect the texture of the finished cake. So on balance we would not advocate using coconut oil as a substitute for butter in this particular cake.