When you use whole wheat instead of white flour …
Honey instead of sugar …
Olive oil instead of butter …
And put peanut butter in the frosting …
But still use plenty of cocoa powder …. What do you have?
A “healthy chocolate cake!”
That’s what I made in the Times Leader Test Kitchen a few days ago, with surprisingly positive results.
“Healthy is not the main thing I look for in chocolate cake,” Times Leader columnist and taste tester Bill O’Boyle said. “Still it’s good … but I’d like a glass of milk with it.”
“I’m missing the sugar,” sportswriter Kevin Carroll said when he heard the list of ingredients. Still, he liked it enough to accept a second piece.
Admittedly, with 1 cup of honey instead of 2 cups of sugar, this was not a very sweet cake.
“It’s a nice alternative to all the sweet choices out there,” publisher Kerry Miscavage said. “It almost feels like a kind of bread.”
“Yes, it reminds me of chocolate zucchini bread,” agreed news editor Liz Baumeister, who added she liked the texture and, if she were to bake it herself, would make cupcakes instead of one big cake.
Tasters who also enjoy baking seemed most interested in the cake, and it turned out my husband Mark and brother-in-law Jay had been eager to sample the avocado icing that I had intended to use for frosting. But at the last minute I thought another icing recipe at fooddoodles.com — one simply titled Chocolate Fudge Frosting — sounded easier. So I made that one, mixing up some maple syrup, melted coconut oil and all-natural peanut butter, even though the blogger warned that it would be runny.
Yes, it was runny — but tasty. And shiny. “It’s more like a glaze,” Mark said.
And all the peanut butter the frosting contained made the cake taste like a Reese’s peanut butter cup.
All told, at least 13 people sampled this cake, with my mom saying it was wonderful, neighbor Roger saying it would be even better served with cherry sauce, paginator Ashley Bringmann saying it was a good complement to coffee and my bilingual amie Québécoise Louise Bilodeau, partner of my brother-in-law Gregg, saying it reminded her of a Christmas stollen.
Louise also would have liked to try the avocado icing. No doubt, either Mark or I will eventually try to make that.
All in all, I’d say the ‘Healthy Chocolate Cake’ is a good recipe, and the more I tasted it, the more I liked it.
“When I heard there was honey in it,” editor Liz said, “I thought it would be bitter. But it’s not.”
“If you don’t expect it to be like a traditional chocolate cake, and you judge it on its own merits,” Mark said, “it’s pretty good.”
Now for the recipe, from fooddoodles.com. The web site offers many options for making this cake; I’ve included the ones I used, including Chocolate Fudge Frosting instead of Avocado Frosting.
Healthy Chocolate Cake
1 cup honey
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk of choice
1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Preheat your oven to 325. Line 2 round 8” cake pans with parchment paper on the bottom and then grease the sides of the pans.
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add eggs, milk, honey, olive oil and vanilla. Mix for 2 minutes on medium and then stir in the boiling water. The batter will be almost as thin as water. If you taste it, it will NOT taste good! But don’t worry. It tastes great after baking.
Divide the batter between the two pans.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with some moist crumbs, but no uncooked liquid. The bake time will vary widely depending on what combination of sugar / eggs / flour you use.
Let cool completely before frosting, about 1 hour. The unfrosted cake layers can remain at room temperature for up to 2 days, or they can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Alternatively, you can freeze them for up to 3 months.
Chocolate Fudge Frosting
1/2 cup refined coconut oil
1/2 cup natural peanut butter or another nut / seed butter
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
salt to taste (be sure to add this! It really brings out the flavor)
1/3 cup + 2 teaspoons maple syrup
Melt the coconut oil in a small pot or pan over low heat. Add the nut butter, cocoa powder, vanilla extract and salt and stir together. When it’s completely smooth, take it off the heat and add the maple syrup and stir until well combined.
Let cool until room temperature and then spread over the cooled cake.
Store the frosted cake in the fridge for up to 5 days.
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