In my initial blog post I proclaimed I am a lazy dietitian (in the kitchen) which is a very true statement but today I was a bit more motivated.
Why? It’s my husband David’s birthday.
I knew after all he does for me I needed to make him a cake. Dave is a fairly simple guy and you might think that being married to a dietitian (and a sports RD at that!) he would reap the benefits of daily nutritious meals that are a textbook perfect balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats with optimal amounts of vitamins and minerals. The fact is Dave has a very selective palate and unfortunately the choices… well, are not the most wholesome. In his defense, he does try to make better food choices (we have progressed from “Cheesy Poufs” to Blue Tortilla Chips and regular cheese to low fat cheese) but there is plenty of room for improvement. In all relationships, we pick and choose our battles and I am not going to nag him about his diet but rather try to positively influence him even if that means by deception :-)
Dave’s favorite cake is dark chocolate with whipped strawberry icing. Sounds like an odd combination but it indeed is quite tasty. Usually I make good old Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Cake but today I thought I would finally use the recipe I pulled from one of my favorite nutrition magazines, Clean Eating a couple months back.
My interest in the cake recipe came from its main ingredient, black beans! I love black beans and use the low sodium canned beans weekly. Dave on the other hand, I have never seen eat a black bean or any other legume for that matter. Today I decided I was going to sneak them in!
Be forewarned, this recipe is a tad bit time consuming and even a bit messy but its well worth it!
What you need to make this moist and delicious cake is:
8 inch baking dish
Food processor
Non-stick cooking spray
1 oz 70% or greater Dark Chocolate
1.5 cups Reduced/low sodium canned black beans- rinsed and drained
2 Eggs + 1 egg white
2 Tbsp. Extra light olive oil
.25 cup Unsweetened dark chocolate cocoa powder
1 tsp. Pure vanilla extract
.25 cup Unsweetened applesauce
.5 cup Honey
1 tsp Baking powder
Step 1:
Preheat oven to 350 and coat an 8-inch square-baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Step 2:
Break dark chocolate into small pieces and add 1 tbsp of water to a small glass bowl. Place the small glass bowl in a shallow skillet with water (~ 1 inch deep) and over low heat allow the water to heat the bowl and slowly melt the dark chocolate.
Step 3:
Combine black beans, oil, honey, applesauce & vanilla extract in a food processor and process until creamy smooth. Add cocoa powder, melted chocolate, eggs & baking powder and blend until smooth. Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish.
Step 4:
Bake for ~ 30 minutes until the top is dry and the sides pull away from the baking dish. Allow the cake to cool before cutting into squares or shapes of your choice (I used a drink glass to make small circles for Dave’s cake)
The topping possibilities for this cake are only limited by your imagination.
For Dave, I actually used his favorite commerical strawberry icing (hopefully the healthful ingredients in te cake counterbalance this!) and made a mini version of the traditional round cake. I added dark chocolate chips and shaved dark chocolate on top.
Because I love chocolate and LOVE almond butter, I created an almond butter icing using almond butter, a small amount of Smart Balance margarine and confectioner’s sugar. Other toppings that I plan to try are chopped dark cherries with a small amount of nonfat vanilla Greek yogurt and I think I might even splurge and use fresh strawberries and some whipped topping.
I doubt I will invest this much time in the kitchen any time soon but heck when you making something for "your better half" it is always time well spent.
Now I am just hoping Dave does not read this until AFTER he has tried his Black Bean birthday cake ;-)