Category Archives: Recipes – Dessert

Earlier this week we celebrated sensitivehusband’s birthday with some nice dinners, presents…and cake! Like me, my husband enjoys chocolate, so I combined the flavors inspired by turtle cake and buttercream frosting recipes and made some calculations to remove the cane sugar. The result went over very well with the birthday guy and others who have sampled it. Fortunately for us, there is enough cake to eat all week! If you are not a fan of or cannot eat peanut butter, I suggest making extra chocolate buttercream for the in-between layer, or using cane sugar-free jam. Below is my recipe. Have a great day and let me know what you think!

Chocolate Cake with Honey Peanut and Chocolate Butter Creams

Cake:
1 1/2 cups boiling water
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup honey
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
  
Honey Peanut Butter Cream:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/8 cup peanut butter
1/2 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1/3 cup honey
  
Chocolate Butter Cream:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon water
pinch of salt
1 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350°.  Coat bottoms of 2 (8-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray or butter (do not coat sides of pans); dust with 1 tablespoon flour.

Combine boiling water and cocoa, stirring well with a whisk. Cool completely.

Place honey, butter and vanilla in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture and cocoa mixture alternately to honey mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.

Pour batter into prepared pans; sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely before frosting the in-between layer with Honey Peanut Butter Cream, and the top and sides with Chocolate Butter Cream.

For Honey Peanut Butter Cream: Cream butter and peanut butter. Add the water, salt, and vanilla and cream again. Slowly add the honey and beat until creamy.

For Chocolate Butter Cream: Cream the butter, vanilla, water and salt until creamy. Slowly add the agave nectar and cocoa powder.

Please note: refrigerate the butter creams if either becomes too runny to use for frosting. A few minutes in the cool temperature will correct the consistency.

I am also sharing this recipe with Simply Sugar and Gluten Free, This Chick Cooks, Something Swanky, Food Trip Friday, Sweet as Sugar Cookies, Everyday Sisters, Joy of Desserts and on my Facebook page.

Yesterday was a really nice day. It was my birthday, and I had the opportunity to celebrate with friends and family. I received wonderful notes, cards, text messages, phone calls, presents and visits. I also enjoyed lunch and dinner out, which is quite an accomplishment for someone with food sensitivities!

I have found a trick that works well when going out to eat: I carry a list of my food sensitivities on a card that is in my wallet. When I order something, I show the card to my server who can check with the chef to make sure there are no ingredients in the meal that I cannot eat. It makes me more relaxed when I go out and the restaurant staff have always been accommodating. As a result, I enjoyed a delicious turkey club sandwich for lunch and a filet mignon for dinner!

A wonderful gift from my husband was the birthday cake he baked me! It was the first cake he ever made from scratch, and the first “sensitive” cake ever baked for me. He started with recipes for “Best Birthday Cake” and “Instant Fudge Frosting” – sounds good so far, right? He then converted the recipe to remove the cane sugar; the revised versions are below:

Best Birthday Cake Ingredients: 4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising); 2 teaspoons baking powder; 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened; 1 1/3 cups honey; 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract; 4 large eggs, at room temperature; 2 cups milk; 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Cake Directions: Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and honey in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in milk and lemon juice until just combined. Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just incorporated. Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Frost with Instant Fudge Frosting (see below).

Instant Fudge Frosting Ingredients: 6 ounces grain sweetened chocolate chips, melted and cooled; 1 3/4 cups honey; 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature; 6 tablespoons milk; 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Frosting Directions: Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse to incorporate, then process until the frosting is smooth.

The result? A sweet ending to a lovely day! As the saying goes, I had my cake and ate it too!

*This recipe is linked to Simply Sugar and Gluten Free’s Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays (this cake is cane sugar free although it currently contains gluten), This Chick Cooks and Sweet as Sugar Cookies.

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