Stella’s 2nd Birthday Flourless Chocolate Cake

When looking through photo albums Stella loves the pictures from her first birthday and always says, “Momma make birthday cake for Stella”. At one year old, she didn’t eat much of the cake as it was her first exposure to mixed textures and coconut flour which can be drying to the mouth. She liked the coconut oil beet frosting and I think she had a positive experience we have since repeated her first birthday cake as muffins and has enjoyed, you can get Stella’s first Grain-free Coconut banana birthday cake here!

So this year, she has experienced chocolate and knows where my evening stash is…most nights I have a square of 80% or greater dark cacao when closing work up on my laptop prior to bed. This is my food freedom and a sustainable balanced indulgence for me! We had been talking about her upcoming birthday and she started asking for chocolate or a “cocohwat caake for Stella”. I have a decadent chocolate raspberry  flourless chocolate cake on the blog that uses no flours and is more like a dense torte so I wanted to try a more cake-like option for her birthday.

Enter Cristina Curp of The Castaway Kitchen! I met this amazing woman at PaleoFx this year and we connected quickly about my food-as-medicine mission and her journey of healing her body with AIP Keto. She sent me an early release of her upcoming book, Made Whole, which I highly recommend as I was totally impressed with her innovative recipes that combine unique flavor profiles using nourishing real food ingredients. I found a recipe for her Dark Chocolate muffins in her cookbook and they looked amazing, I coordinated with her to consult on making more dense into a cake and removing the sweetener and then I made the following modifications to develop Stella’s 2nd Birthday Flourless Chocolate Cake! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Many of you know my position against non-caloric sweeteners but to get more of my perspective check out my blog here on insulin resistance and how I always prefer real food options that provide nourishment while reducing portions to stay keto strong.

For the cake:

1 cup cacao powder
1⁄3 cup coconut flour
3 Tbsp almond flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon fine Himalayan salt
3 large eggs
1⁄2 cup full-fat coconut milk, at room temp
3 Tbsp dark amber maple syrup
1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
3 Tbsp ghee, melted
1 Tbsp avocado oil
1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Grease 8” cake pan with grassfed butter or ghee. In a large bowl, combine cacao, coconut flour, almond flour, baking soda, and Himalayan salt. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk eggs, then mix in coconut milk, maple, vanilla, melted ghee, and avocado oil. Whisk liquids until smooth. Slowly pour liquid mixture into dry mixture in large bowl and continue to stir with whisk. Once combined pour in boiling water ¼ cup at a time to achieve a smooth texture with the viscosity of maple syrup, you may use only ¾ of the water pending on your brand and dryness of the coconut and almond flour.

Place cake pan in middle rack of oven and bake for 20-25 minutes checking at 18 minutes to determine. When cake is done it will start to pull off edges of pan and you can insert a tester with it coming out clean.

Want to hear more about our take on non-caloric sweeteners? Tune in to Episode 89 of the Naturally Nourished Podcast!

For the Ganache:

4 ounces 80% cacao chocolate bar, chopped (I used Theo’s Brand)
1⁄2 cup coconut cream (I used Cha’s Brand)

Using a double boiler or a small pot of boiling water with a glass bowl on top, melt the chocolate bar stirring with spatula. Then once melted completely stir in coconut cream. Remove bowl from heat after well incorporated and pour over cooled cake spreading with spatula. Set frosted cake in fridge for 20-30 minutes to set ganache.

Nutrition facts for 1/12 recipe including cake and ganache: 

223 calories, 15g fat, 18g carbs, 6g fiber, 6g protein