Wednesday was my mom’s birthday and, to celebrate, I made her a very chocolate-y gluten-free cake. Since cake and chocolate are not exactly naturopathic (although dark cocoa has been shown to modestly lower blood pressure), it’s important that, when eating and preparing dessert, we make sure we create a 10/10 on the delicious-ness scale. Making sure that birthday cakes are as chocolate-y and delicious as possible makes it worth it and justifies the extra sugar and calories. I hope this one was a 10.

On a search for the perfect cake I consulted some great food blogs, created by a couple of my colleagues. I drew inspiration from Kris’ recipe and Amy’s many yummy cake recipes. Check them out too! Yum!

Dark Chocolate and Coconut Gluten-free Birthday Cake

Ingredients:

A bundt cake pan or other cake pan

1 100 g chocolate bars 75% cocoa or more

1/2 cup of super strong, hot coffee or espresso

1.5 cups of gluten-free all purpose flour (can make it without the GF flour if you like, too)

2 eggs

1/2 cup of unsweetened original almond milk (you can use coconut milk or any other kind of milk here)

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbs lemon juice

1/4 cup -1/2 cup honey (or more or less depending on how sweet you like your cake or how sweet the chocolate you’re using is)

1/4 cup coconut oil (melt for 30 seconds in the microwave before adding to the cake mixture)

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 – 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut to sprinkle on top

Fresh raspberries, blackberries and/or icing sugar to garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brew extra strong coffee or espresso. Create a double-boiler using a large pot filled with water and a large glass bowl. Heat the pot on medium-high heat, insert the glass bowl and break up the chocolate bars and put them in the bowl. Pour the espresso over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the rest of the cake ingredients (except the coconut and berries). Mix well and stir in the melted chocolate and espresso.

If you are using an upside-down bundt pan, grease and then sprinkle the bottom with shredded coconut and pour the cake batter in. If you’re using a regular cake pan, then grease and pour in the cake batter, sprinkling the top with shredded coconut.

Cook for 35 minutes. Allow to cool and then display on a cake stand or glass dish. Garnish with berries and icing sugar. Happy Birthday, Mom!