Dark Chocolate (Paleo) Cake

If you have to give up your favorite food and replace it with bland  and boring food, all in the name of a healthy lifestyle, it’s wrong, unfair and definitely not sustainable. A healthy lifestyle involves  a balanced diet by upgrading your food as opposed to eliminating everything right off the bat. Upgrading the ingredients in your food takes the pressure off and makes the idea of change less shocking. For example, if cakes are your weakness, instead of buying them at the store or using the packaged mix, make them at home and upgrade the ingredients. I made this dark chocolate cake at home, which is refined sugar, butter and all purpose flour free. Instead I used dates and coconut sugar, olive oil, almond meal and dark chocolate chips/cocoa powder. By upgrading the ingredients, I got a super delicious and the best chocolate cake (not exaggerating) with more nutrition. It is absolutely an everyday cake, free of crazy additives and unnecessary calories. Also, it’s so easy to make… I hope you make and enjoy this cake, because we all deserve cake and chocolates, and a healthy lifestyle that never goes out of style!

Ingredients

⅔ Cup Olive Oil
6 Tablespoons Dark Cocoa (sifted) or Belgian Dark Chocolate Chips
½ Cup Boiling Water
1 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract
1½ Cups Almond Meal
½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
Pinch of salt
½ Cup Organic Raw Coconut Sugar
6-8 Medjool Dates, pitted
3 Eggs

Process

1. Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Grease a 9 inch cake pan, line with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Add the pitted dates to blender and make a paste. Add few teaspoons of water if needed. Set aside.
3. Add the cocoa powder or chocolate chips to the boiling water and whisk until you have a smooth, chocolaty mixture. Set aside to cool.
4. In a separate bowl, combine almond meal, baking soda and pinch of salt.
5. Combine the sugar, dates paste, olive oil, vanilla and eggs, and using a hand held mixer or a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat vigorously for about 3 minutes or until the mixture is thick and aerated.
6. Lower the speed and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when everything is mixed well, slowly add the almond meal mixture. Using a spatula, stir and scrape the mixture, making sure that there are no lumps.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the center looks slightly damp. A toothpick should come up clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
8. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack, before taking it out of the pan. Serve as desired.

Enjoy! 🙂