Paleo Chocolate Cake by My Heart Beets
- 1 cup almond flour
- ½ cup raw cacao powder
- ¼ cup coconut flour, sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup maple syrup
- ½ cup ghee or grassfed butter (1 stick), melted
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup dairy-free chocolate chunks
- 1 (10 ounce) package of dairy-free chocolate chips
- 4 tablespoons ghee or grassfed butter
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup, to taste
- In a small bowl combine the dry ingredients (almond flour flour, cacao, coconut flour, baking soda and salt).
- Add the maple syrup, melted butter and mix well.
- Then, add the eggs and mix well.
- Stir in the chocolate chunks and spoon the batter into two greased 6-inch round cake pans.
- Bake at 350° for 35-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
- Remove the cake from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool.
- Melt the chocolate using the double boiler method (glass bowl over pot with simmering water).
- As the chocolate begins to melt, add the ghee and maple syrup. Mix until smooth.
- Remove the chocolate from heat, allow it to cool slightly, then pour it on top of the cooled cake.
This recipe makes up the majority of the base of the paleo birthday cake. When my mother poured the ganache on top of the cake, she said she had to flash freeze it to keep the chocolate from running off the cake completely. They also used some extra ganache to make chocolate covered strawberries.
The original recipe for this paleo chocolate cake can be found here: http://myheartbeets.com/paleo-chocolate-cake/
Paleo Frosting by Real Food:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup palm shortening — where to find
- 1/2 cup raw honey — where to find
- 2 Tsp vanilla
- 4 Tbsp arrowroot powder — where to find
- 4 Tbsp coconut flour — where to find
- 4 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Directions:
- In a mixing bowl, combine everything except the coconut oil
- Blend with a hand mixer until well combined
- Drizzle coconut oil in slowly while mixing on high
- Mix until whipped together
This frosting is so, so, so delicious. You can dye the frosting colors like pink using beet juice, but when my sister and mother tried this the beet juice wouldn’t combine with the frosting. The original recipe for the paleo frosting can be found here: http://realfoodrn.com/best-paleo-frosting-ever/
They originally made 3 layers to this cake and hollowed it out, to make the cake into a skirt like more traditional Barbie cakes. But then they found this yogini Barbie, and she sat in lotus pose on the chocolatey mountain of nutty cake goodness.
As much as I loved this cake (I may or may not have cried when I saw it), my mother said that making it made her day. Making a birthday cake for her daughter together with her daughter and granddaughter was one of her dreams. And it’s so nice that they could all come together for this! There was a moment with a bag of arrowroot powder, where my mother asked my niece to hold the bag for a minute. It slipped, and with a whoosh a cloud of flour covered them both. My mother and my niece both looked at each other – my niece a little fearfully – and then my mother smiled really big and said how silly this looked, and that they should go outside and dance. So they did. They danced around and shook off all of the extra flour, while my sister and brother cleaned up the spilled flour. My mother knew that if she was upset with my niece, it would ruin the baking experience, and that my niece wouldn’t want to bake with her next time. And what’s the use in crying over spilt flour? They just went to the store for more.
I was so proud of them for pulling this together, and excited that they learned about all of these new ingredient substitutes, like ghee (clarified butter), palm shortening, coconut oil, arrowroot, and coconut flour. It’s actually not that difficult to make your own ghee, but it’s also pretty common in healthier grocery stores lately. This paleo birthday cake was so, so, so good, and I am so grateful for having a family that would go through all of this trouble for such a special birthday cake. Now, if only lotus pose could come as easily to me as it does to this Barbie. 🙂