The Most Delicious Healthy Chocolate Cake EVER!

I’m thrilled that certified holistic health coach, Katherine Nilbrink, agreed to write a guest post for me. She is my plant-based guru!

Katherine is a wonderful plant-based chef and the most nutritionally knowledgeable person I know. In fact, I’m surprised I was able to talk her into writing a guest post because she is one busy chica. She is Head of the Instructor Team for eCornell’s Certificate in Plant Based Nutrition course and has her own wellness company, Lifetrekk. A guest post from her is a real treat, so I’ll stop babbling and let her begin!

The Most Delicious Healthy Chocolate Cake EVER!

First I wanted to say what an honor it is for me to be asked by Celeste to be a guest blogger on her site!  I love her site and have so enjoyed being a part of Celeste’s Plant Based journey.

As Celeste knows I have a lot to say about Plant Based Nutrition and hope to bring more of that knowledge here in future posts but I thought I would start out with something fun and easy – DESSERT!

One of the first questions I get from people contemplating switching to a Plant Based Lifestyle is: ‘Can I still have dessert and CHOCOLATE?’  And ‘Of Course!’ is my answer but it comes with a caveat:  If you are addicted to sweets then there is a completely different issue going on here and you may want to hold off on eating desserts for a while as you get a handle on your food cravings (I’ll cover that on another guest post soon!).

So what does a Plant Based dessert entail?  It means that we are dealing with all whole unprocessed (or minimally processed) ingredients – no sugars (including agave, maple syrup, etc), no refined grains, and no oils (another junk food).  Basically no refined products.  So it’s not just about being vegan and animal free, it’s also about nutrition and nutrient density.

I sweeten my desserts with whole plants (unsweetened applesauce, dates, bananas, sweet potatoes, beets, etc) and use only whole grains.  I want to jam as many nutrients into every bite I eat as possible.  That being said – even though this is a highly nutritious dessert – it is still a dessert and thus calorie dense so it should still be eaten as a treat!

Here is a chocolate cake recipe that I created that has been used in restaurants around the world.  It is a bit more dense than a regular chocolate cake but make sure you sift the dry ingredients together and only fold the wet ingredients until mixed and that will add air to it and help keep it a bit more ‘fluffy’ and light. I hope you enjoy it!

Recipe for The Most Delicious Chocolate Cake EVER!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup walnuts
• 2 Tbs 100% cocoa bar broken into pieces (or cacao nibs)
• 20 medjool dates, pitted
• 2/3 cups white beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1 cup beets, shredded
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 cup unsweetened milk alternative (almond, hemp, coconut, etc)
• 1 Banana

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Sift together all dry ingredients (except nuts and nibs).  THEN add nuts and cacao nibs. Puree beans, dates, vanilla, banana and milk.  Mix in beets.

Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients until just blended.  Pour into an 8X8 baking dish (non-stick or glass) or 8 inch spring form pan.  Bake at least 60 minutes, or until done, rotating halfway through cooking time.

Allow cake to cool completely and before adding ‘frosting’.  Dust with cacao powder.  Or eat it plain.

Cashew Cream ‘Frosting’

• 1 cup raw cashews
• 4 dates
• 1 cup unsweetened milk alternative (almond, soy, hemp, etc)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Place cashews and dates in a bowl of water to soak at least an hours.

Drain and place in a high-speed blender with the rest of ingredients.  Blend until very smooth and creamy.  I like to blend longer to add more air to it to make it fluffy so feel free to just let it blend.

‘Frost’ on a completely cooled chocolate cake.  Dust with cacao powder.  ENJOY!

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