Green Chocolate Cake

I often get asked by readers how they can increase the amount of veggies their kids eat.

Whilst normally I’d go on and on about educating your child on the value of nutritional food (a handy bit of wisdom for them to have so when they are adults they can make their own informed choices), adding grated or purred veggies to spaghetti sauce or sausage rolls (or pretty much everything you ever make for dinner) and making veggies fun rather than soggy and limp. But today I don’t have to. Today I can legitimately and without guilt tell you that the answer is cake.

I firmly believe that cake can solve many problems. It can cheer you up, it can fill you up, it can act as a peace offering and they are part of so many special memories (can you remember your favourite childhood birthday cake?). This Green Chocolate Cake solves (at least) two problems. Firstly, it could be considered part dinner (or #Dinnert as I like to call it) because of all the vegetables involved and secondly, it will totally fool your kids (and all those veggie dissing men out there too). And whilst I would never condone cake for dinner (cough cough) if I did, at least I know this Green Chocolate Cake has two vegetables, fruit, protein (eggs and almond meal) and a healthy dose of tasty flavour. If I wanted to make sure it was a well-rounded meal I would replace the Chocolate Avocado frosting with Chocolate Sweet Potato Frosting.

Done. Super Mum.

This Green Chocolate Cake is slow baked to maintain the moisture and the end result is an almost fudge-like cake. After the cake has baked at a low temperature for almost two hours it is placed in the freezer for one hour to trap all the softness in, preventing the cake from becoming dry. Once the cake has cooled it can be frosted and demolished. Slow cooking a cake and freezing it might sound crazy (I thought so too when I read about it at Not Quite Nigella) but it has become one of my favourite ways to bake. My Pumpkin Spice Cake and Carrot Cake are both slowed cooked and they are now family favourites.

Now that we’ve established that this Green Chocolate Cake is as good for you as it tastes, we now have to answer the question: If you are eating cake for dinner (which again; I don’t advise you do too often) do you have to use a knife and fork?

Print Recipe

Green Chocolate Cake

Need a way to get more greens into your kid’s diet? This Green Chocolate Cake is the perfect blend of hidden nutrition and taste. Blending the avocado, zucchini and spinach together makes them almost impossible to detect so the family will be none the wiser

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time2 hrs

Total Time3 hrs 10 mins

Servings: 16

Author: Lisa@mummymade.it

Ingredients

INGREDIENTS

• 3 Eggs
• 1/2 Cup Maple Syrup
• 3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 Cup mashed ripe Avocado approximately 2 small or 1 large but measure to be sure
• 1/2 Cup grated Zucchini
• 1/2 Cup chopped Spinach
• 3 teaspoons Bicarb Soda
• 1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
• 1/4 Cup Arrowroot/Tapioca
• 1/2 Cup Almond Meal
• 1/3 Cup plus 1 Tablespoon Cocoa
• 1 1/4 Cup Milk of choice
• 1 Tablespoon Vinegar

Instructions

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat the oven to 140C/285F. Line and grease a 18cm or 20 cm (8 inch) square cake tin
• Place the eggs in the bowl of a kitchen stand mixer and beat for 5 minutes, or until fluffy.
• Add the maple syrup and vanilla extract and beat on high until smooth.
• Puree/mash/blend the avocado, zucchini and spinach until the avocado is smooth. Add the green mix into the eggs, beating on high.
• In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the milk to the vinegar and stir until combined.
• Add the milk and dry ingredients alternatively, starting/ending with the milk.
• Pour into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour, 50 minutes to 2 hours or until cooked through. The cake will be very moist.
• Cover the cake with a tea towel and immediately put the cake in the freezer for 1 hour.
• Remove and keep at room temperature until cooled completely and remove from the tin.
• Frost with Chocolate Avocado Frosting or for extra veggies use the Chocolate Sweet Potato Frosting.
• The cake will become denser as it ages. Store in the fridge.