Guilt-Free Friday: Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing

Happy Birthday to Me!  Well, this past Saturday anyway, so happy 27 & 1 week birthday to me today!  I was up late Friday night last week baking myself a cake, and I think it turned out great if I do say so myself!  Justin was out at my aunt and uncle’s house making deer sausage and wound up staying there until about 1am Saturday morning, so I got a rather amusing phone call at 12:04am from him and everyone else there singing Happy Birthday to me.  Good thing I was up anyway with that cake!  Then he came home and got out two boxes – one little one and one very big one.  The little one was a new tea kettle (so I can quit using his coffee maker for my tea, I guess…) and the big one was a new jewelry armoire.  Yay!  Harlee loves the big box, too, it’s still looking fancy in our living room floor, full of pillows and toys and whatever other random odds and ends he decided to throw in it.  There’s just something about a big ol’ cardboard box that just puts a kid in heaven…

Have you ever hit an age where you feel like you’ve crossed over into something?  Not like you’re getting older or anything, but like you’ve turned a page to a new chapter…  27 is that number for me.  I haven’t quite figured it out, but it has nothing to do with 30 coming up around the corner, because that number doesn’t bug me for some reason…  Maybe I’m just weird?  Well, okay, so I AM weird anyway.  But it’s true this has been a transformational year in just a month and a half’s time, so maybe there’s just some kind of energy around this 27^th year for me that I’m picking up on.  That is totally okay with me!

We had a great time with friends and cousins Saturday night – stayed local and enjoyed dinner and drinks at the Mexican restaurant, went to a bar and then to the new microbrewery in town, which is a great little establishment.  It was definitely an enjoyable night!  I shared that chocolate cake I made with everyone too, and it was met with approval, yay!  I’m glad I made it the night before (or, technically that morning, but you know what I mean).  I’ve found that desserts made with almond or coconut flour taste better the next day.  Keep that in mind when you embark on your dessert-making adventure!

 This cake was basically an alteration of the amaretto cake that I made for Justin’s birthday, and the frosting was pretty similar too.  Here’s how it goes:

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ cup palm sugar

½ cup coconut flour

½ cup almond flour

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs, vanilla, and sugar.  Add the flours, cocoa, salt, and baking soda.  Mix together until a batter forms.  Grease an 8x8 inch baking pan and pour in the batter.  Bake for 20-30 minutes until a knife or toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Once it’s cool you can frost it:

Icing:

1 cup peanut butter

1 packet of stevia if using natural unsweetened peanut butter, otherwise omit

1 cup coconut butter

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

Mix all ingredients with a hand mixer until smooth.

I doubled the cake recipe for a layered cake and the icing recipe made plenty for the two of them.  I chopped up some peanuts and mixed them with chocolate chips to sprinkle on top of the cake.  Peanut butter and chocolate… what a wonderful combo… and made it for a wonderful birthday cake!