Special Guest Post by Kristin at Live Simply
I’ve been an avid reader and fan of The Nourishing Home since Kelly first began writing. Kelly’s grace and practical wisdom for real food and healthy living are always an inspiration. I’m honored to stop by The Nourishing Home today, and share one of my favorite grain-free sweet treats.
[Note from Kelly (blushing): Such kind words from a dear friend! I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Kristin visiting with us! Her beautiful blog –Live Simply– is a true inspiration with her encouraging wisdom, passion for real food, healthy living and meal planning. And speaking of passion – her passion for chocolate is one I’m sure most of us share. So thank you, Kristin, for being too good to us in sharing this decadent treat! Just one bite of this rich chocolate cake and you’ll know what I mean!]
I have a number of passions in life. I believe learning a person’s passion(s) is often the best way to connect and understand what makes them “tick.” My faith in Jesus, my family, and a quest for simplicity are a few of my greatest passions. Add a pinch of: backyard chickens, beets, and chocolate – and you get Kristin, a simple and passionate gal.
With Mother’s Day fast approaching, let’s talk about one of my passions, chocolate.
Four years ago, when our family made the switch to real food, I had an addiction to all things chocolate: candy bars, cake, pastries, and cookies, anything with the slightest hint of chocolate taste. All my favorite treats were highly processed and so they had to go.
A few months after purging our house of everything processed and feeling a bit discouraged, I discovered the beauty of real food. When applied with grace, this real food lifestyle can be incredibly liberating, inspiring, and out-of-this world delicious. I soon realized real food was about more than just kale and spinach. Real food also includes decadent chocolate in moderation. Hallelujah!
I happily stock a share of good quality chocolate in my real food pantry. My stockpile no longer consists of chocolate bars and processed cookies, but instead two simple ingredients: unsweetened cocoa and minimally processed chocolate chips. With real chocolate ingredients, the possibilities for making homemade treats are endless. A few of my favorites include: raw brownie bites and “the best ever” brownie. Yummy real food treats our family enjoys creating together and sharing.
And so, with Mother’s Day almost here and my passion for chocolate, I created a decadent real food chocolate cake to share with you. This cake is made with two of my favorite baking ingredients – blanched almond flour and coconut flour. These simple grain-free flours create perfectly moist muffins, bread, and cake. They also add nutritional benefits, such as protein and healthy fat.
This grain-free chocolate cake is delightfully sweetened with honey and melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. Topped with a simple homemade fudge icing, and if desired a scoop (or two) of homemade vanilla bean ice cream. A rich chocolate dessert that says, “Mom, I love you,” in one little bite.
Passion can be incredibly delicious and rewarding, so let’s not delay another minute. Break out the bowls, whisk, butter, and chocolate – we have a cake to make, just in time for Mom’s big day.
Ingredients
- 1 cup allergy-friendly chocolate chips
- 1 cup butter (or 1/2 cup palm shortening, plus 1/2 cup coconut oil)
- 1 cup honey
- 5 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups blanched almond flour
- 1/2 cup coconut flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup coconut cream (*see recipe note below)
- 1/2 cup allergy-friendly chocolate chips
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 TB honey
- 1 tsp arrowroot powder
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease a 9-inch spring-form pan with a little coconut oil. Or lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish to make my special happy-happy ice cream cake.
- In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate chips. As the ingredients melt, stir frequently. Once melted, remove the pan from the heat and allow the mixture to slightly cool.
- While the chocolate cools, whisk together the almond and coconut flours, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a stand-mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (this can also be done with lots of muscle, a bowl, and whisk, or an electric hand mixer), whisk together the honey and eggs for 1 minute on medium speed. Add in the vanilla, whisk for 1 minute.
- Add the flour to the honey mixture and whisk for 1 minute. Slowly add the melted chocolate, with the mixer on medium speed. Whisk for 2 minutes, until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared 9-inch spring-form pan and bake for 55-60 minutes. (If using a 9x13-inch baking dish, bake the cake approximately 45-55 minutes, just until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.)
- In a saucepan, melt the chocolate chips and coconut cream (*see recipe note below), stirring frequently.
- Bring the chocolate mixture to a simmer, and then add the honey. Simmer the ingredients together for 1 minute.
- Add the vanilla extract and arrowroot powder, whisk for a minute. The icing will begin to thicken. Remove from the heat and cool.
- Once the cake has cooled, remove from the spring-form pan. Spread the icing evenly over the cake. Enjoy!
Notes
* What is Coconut Cream? Coconut cream refers to the cream that rises and solidifies in a can of pure coconut milk. To obtain coconut cream, simply place a can of unsweetened pure coconut milk into the fridge for at least 10-12 hours. By chilling the can of coconut milk, the coconut cream will rise to the top of the can and become solid. You can then measure out 1/2 cup of coconut cream for this recipe. Reserve the remainder for another use.
Please be sure to visit Kristin at Live Simply and thank her for sharing this wonderful recipe with us! It truly is the BEST chocolate cake. EVER!
Kristin is a stay-at-home mom of two children, Piper (4) and Londyn (2). She loves to share her real food tips, ideas, and recipes for feeding the entire family nourishing whole foods. She is passionate about encouraging moms on this journey of simple, natural living and traditional, real food. Kristin is a professional blogger and the creator of Live Simply.
Thanks! I am definitely going to try this for Mother’s Day! It looks delicious!
Thanks for your note! Me too! Thankful Kristin shared this with us! 🙂
Can you substitute hazelnut or walnut flour?
Hi, Dynette. Since we haven’t tried it we cannot comment with 100% confidence. But I do know that cashew flour works very well as a substitute for almond flour, so perhaps the same an be said for hazelnut or walnut. The one caution is that each type of nut has differing fat ratios which can impact baked goods. Please let us know if you try it! 🙂
Thank you, Tori. Happy Mother’s Day…enjoy the cake :).
Oh, if only my husband or kids, or all three of them in one glorious joint effort would get in the kitchen and make me this cake for Mother’s Day! I’ve pinned it for my own future reference, just in case that little pipe dream doesn’t come true! 😉
You literally just made me laugh, Dena. I can so relate! What if, you make the cake and leave all the dishes for them to do? My hubby and kids are much more open to dish-doing that cooking (which is actually a win-win since I love to cook). 🙂
A kindred spirit! Here’s to chocolate cake for all the cake-baking, dish-avoiding mamas this Mother’s Day! 😉
Amen! xo
Can you sub really cream for coconut?
Hi, Marybeth. I’m not sure what you mean? The icing recipe calls for coconut cream, not milk cream. Take a look at the recipe note at the bottom of the recipe and you’ll see how to obtain coconut cream from a can of coconut milk. If I misunderstood your question, please do send a note back. Thank you! 🙂
Oh I think you may mean, can you sub real milk cream in place of the coconut cream? If so, I am not 100% certain, since this is not my recipe, but my guess would be yes based on past experience with other recipes. 🙂
I just made the icing using real milk cream and it is DELICIOUS! 🙂
yay! so glad you’re enjoying it! 🙂
So glad you mentioned this as I do NOT have coconut cream ready, and I want to make this cake today for dh’s birthday 🙂 Thanks so much!!!
You are so welcome! Have a wonderful birthday celebration! 🙂
Hey Marybeth, I make the icing using dairy cream a lot and the result is always delicious! Just sub dairy cream for the coconut cream 1:1. Enjoy :).
So glad you like the icing, Andrea :).
Thank you for this amazingly healthful recipe!
I cannot wait to make it for my daughter’a 1st birthday!
Thinking about using coconut sugar instead of honey.
Any thoughts on that?
Blessings in Health,
April
Since honey also adds moisture, you may need to tweak this. Perhaps using some applesauce to make up for the loss in moisture when switching to honey. I do not have an exact ratio to provide since I’d need to fiddle with the recipe to see what would work. Perhaps Kristin has some advice? 🙂
Thank you for the recipe! It looks soooo good! I have a question about the eggs… What could I use instead of them?
Katerina, this article may help you with egg substitutions:
http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/resourcespre.php?id=104
Just remember that it may take some trial and error as eggs are used as both leavening and binding in this recipe as well as contributing moisture. Many blessings, Kelly 🙂
Thank you so much, Kelly! 🙂
RE: the cake…….can I substitute unsweetened cocoa powder for the choc chips and add sugar & butter to make semi sweet chocolate??
That is an adventure I have not taken. So you will definitely be experimenting here. 🙂
Just took my first bite…warm out of the oven…YUM! Even without the frosting! Thank you Kelly!
So glad you’re enjoying it. Thanks to Kristin for sharing with us! 🙂
Egg Replacement
1 Tbsp. Chia Seeds (where to buy chia seeds in bulk)
3 Tbsp. Water
= 1 egg
Instructions
1. I use a coffee grinder to grind the chia seeds into a meal.
2. Mix the water and ground chia seed meal in a small bowl. Allow to sit for 5 minutes until the seed absorbs the water
3. use in recipe.
Thanks for sharing, Wendy. Have you tried replacing all the eggs in this recipe with chia. My only concern is that egg replacements generally work great in recipes with 2 or less eggs, but can get if-y when the recipe calls for multiple eggs. Thanks again for sharing!! 🙂
This looks SO delicious! Thanks for sharing the recipe!!
Thanks so much, Erin! Such a treat to have you stop by to say Hello. Appreciate your kind words and thank you for sharing this! Blessings, sweet friend! 🙂
Oh this looks incredible! I am going to make it this morning for a friends birthday. This coconut cream has blown my mind. I use so many forms of coconuts this and that and had never thought of coconut cream. I chose a can from the back of the shelf thinking it would cut my wait time because I needed to make this in less than 10-12hrs. It worked! I opened the can and there was a solid chunk of cream, like a soft butter consistency. The cream alone tastes fantastic! I always shake coconut milk up so I guess I never noticed this amazing coconut cream before!
Yes, I use coconut cream mainly for making whipped coconut cream (instead of dairy whipped cream) and also for making various icings. So glad you’ve discovered the joys of coconut cream and this new recipe. Blessings, Kelly 🙂
Is there a way to substitute the chocolate chips with cacao nips and something else?
You would definitely be embarking on creating a new recipe. So if you’re up for the challenge, you could opt to experiment in using cacao powder and nips for sure. 🙂
to make this cake fully dairy free, what could i substitute for the butter? coconut oil?
Hi, Jaime. I’d recommend palm shortening (http://amzn.to/1noUB0W) as it’s texture in baking is closer to butter and it won’t impart a strong flavor to the cake like coconut oil will. Or you might try part palm shortening, part coconut oil, if you want the subtle undertones of coconut flavor. Blessings, Kelly
It’s baking in the oven now. My three year old helped with it. This will be my hubby’s birthday cake:)
Happy birthday to your hubby! Hope you all enjoy the cake – and what a good mom you are having your little one help you! 🙂
My son won’t have it any other way. He even insists on doing the dishes. Hopefully this is not a phase! This was a good recipe for his skill level….we used a stick blender with a wisk attachment for the mixing and it worked great. We made the recipe for the cake exactly as written except we used a square glass 9 inch baking dish and it turned out fantastic. We skipped the icing and instead made a fresh cherry and honey topping and homemade vanilla chai ice cream to top it off. Everyone loved it and said it was nice and moist. Thank you for the simple, healthier recipe 🙂
That sounds divine, Taryn! And keep up the great work in encouraging your son to be a wiz in the kitchen. His future wife will love you! 🙂
Love this delicious looking recipe! I need to cut grains out of my diet, so I’m beyond excited to see this cake! Unfortunately, I also have a nut allergy! Can I use equal amounts of more coconut flour to replace the almond flour? I’m very new to this grain-free flour thing!
Hi, Lina. Welcome! Glad you’re here. To answer your question, blanched almond flour and coconut flour are quite different from one another and require differing balances of liquids and eggs in order to bake properly. So substituting isn’t going to be successful, unless you alter the other ingredients in the recipe as well. The good news is, I have two coconut flour cake recipes on this site. You can find them in the “desserts” tab under “cakes” but to make it easier for you, here they are:
• Coconut Flour Brownie Cake: http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/03/coconut-flour-brownie-cake-gf/
• Coconut Flour Chocolate Cake: http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/03/coconut-flour-chocolate-cake-cupcakes/
Blessings, Kelly 🙂
Oh wonderful!!! Wow, thanks so much! I’m really excited to try these
My pleasure! 🙂
Delicious! My 2 girls helped make it, and the whole family enjoyed it 🙂 How should I store what is left?
I would recommend storing the fridge, if the cake is iced. So glad you all enjoyed it! And awesome that you had your girls bake with you! You’re a great mom! 🙂
Thank you!