What’s better than delicious cake?
Delicious healthy cake, of course.
I decided to make a zucchini cake, studded with chocolate bits to celebrate my loved ones’ tastebuds on my birthday. It just makes the cake more rich, in a way, while allowing you to get some greens in! That’s right- just eat this cake and you get your 5 to 10 a day. (Kidding. But it’s a start.)
This cake is healthy- it isn’t gluten free (though I bet you could make it that way if you really wanted to do so), made with coconut sugar and coconut oil, and has Zimt all in it to make you happy. Oh, and zucchini. Speaking of which. Here is why zucchini is a good idea:
I realize that this is the second zucchini infused recipe I have posted in a row. What vegetable should we use for the next recipe?
Beautiful on the outside and on the inside. <3
(Do you see my friend’s new baby in the background? She ate a lot of Zimt during her pregnancy and I am happy to report that this little one is extra adorable and healthy- Zimt side effects ;-))
For the frosting, I wanted something a little bit “cream cheese” esque. I was thinking about how zucchinis, like carrots, are vegetables and how carrot cake usually (and should), have cream cheeze frosting. I had made some fudge the other day, that actually tasted quite a bit like cream cheeze so decided to go with that. But I used less salt because it was very salty the first time I made it and could only have three pieces in one go.
Here is the recipe for eternal youth.
Baby Face Birthday Cake
Cake - based off of Sarah Bakes GFree - thank you, Sarah!
260 g spelt flour (1 3/4 cups)
1 tsp baking powder
œ tsp baking soda
3/4 C coconut sugar
œ C coconut oil
1 T ground flax mixed with 3 T water (make sure it is alkaline or it won’t work. Kidding.)
ΠC applesauce
ΠC coconut nectar, or agave (
only if you’re in a real pickle. But if you’re in a real pickle, you have other matters to attend to- like how to find your way out and why you got there in the first place), or maple syrup
2 C grated zucchini (squeeze it out with a dish towel (clean of course) after grating)
100 g chocolate chunks (try our baking chocolate to keep it cane sugar free!)
Preheat oven to 350 C. Prepare 2 8-inch round cake pans by greasing them up with coconut oil.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine coconut sugar, melted coconut oil, applesauce, flax and water mixture, coconut nectar, vinegar and vanilla. Then you add the zucchini- stir until well combined and the chocolate chunks. Then you add the flour mixture and stir that, too.
Divvy up the cake batter between the 2 8-inch prepared cake pans. Bake for 25-27 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 5 minutes, then invert onto cooling rack to cool completely. Or, for those of us without cooling racks, put some ice in a bowl that has a rim smaller than the cake and then put the cake (on parchment paper) over the bowl opening.
Frosting- based off of this recipe by Charlotte over at Goodness Green - thanks, Charlotte!
168 g banana (1.5 large)
œ tsp Himalayan salt
4 T smooth peanut butter
4 T coconut oil
What you do is this:
Blend in a high speed blender, such as a Vita Mix, or a food processor, the first 4 ingredients until everything is smooth and looks fudge like (smooth, basically). Then you put the frosting onto your cooled cake- I put some in the middle which was really fantastic. It tastes a little bit like cream cheese frosting (but is much healthier!), especially if you don’t use very ripe bananas.
And then you chop up a Zimt bar of your choice (I used Chocolate Nib’d) and decorate it beautifully and you also grate some Zimt on the top!
Then, you feed it to your friends after a rather meagre birthday dinner won’t be going back to that place! But I will be making this cake again!
Happy Saturday Morning and thanks for your patience in my finishing this post!
xo emma