Absolutely Amazing Paleo Chocolate Cake

Paleo means free from gluten, grains, dairy, refined and processed sugar, white flour. It does not mean doesn’t taste good!

This chocolate paleo cake is loved by health nuts as well as those that who would normally roll their eyes at the hearing the words ‘refined sugar free’ or paleo. It really DOES taste good and if you pair it with either the creamy avocado chocolate or coconut cream icing that I’ve described below, it becomes to die for. Credit to The Loopy Whisk, whose recipe I followed (almost) to a tee – I’ve reduced the sugar slightly and tweaked the measurements to be all the same as I find baked goods tend to work better when you use either weight or volume – I’m definitely a cup/tsp type of person as I find it’s the easiest and most efficient way to measure out things, especially if you use a smaller measurement for the bigger ones ie. ¼ cup to measure out 1 cup. Just do the dry ingredients first!

Ingredients

·       6 Tbs coconut oil, melted

·       3/4 cup honey or maple syrup

·       8-9 Tbs cocoa or cacao powder *See notes on the difference between cacao & cocoa powder

·       3 medium eggs, free range and organic where possible

·       3/4 cup non-dairy milk (I use coconut milk, the one on the carton not the can)

Dry ingredients:

·       3/4 cup coconut flour

·       3/4 cup arrowroot flour

·       Pinch of sea salt

·       1 1/4 tsp bicarb soda (or baking soda as the US calls it)

·       1 1/4 tsp baking powder (gluten free) 

A little extra:

·       Handful of fresh or frozen raspberries, grated dark chocolate or finely chopped macadamias

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Place your baking tins on an oven tray – I used three approximately 15cm wide mini tins. If using silicon tins, you won’t need to grease them as they’ll pop right out. Otherwise grease and line with baking paper so the cakes doesn’t stick.

Mix all dry ingredients except the cocoa powder in a bowl and set aside. Make sure the bicarb and baking powder are well distributed and not in chunks.

Add coconut oil and sweetener to a bowl. Slowly whisk in sifted cocoa powder or sift as you add which makes it easier to prevent clumps. It should look like liquid chocolate when finished.

Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each. Add the milk and stir evenly through.    

Add the dry ingredients into the wet chocolate batter and stir until everything is well distributed and there are no clumps. The batter should be quite dense and thick which is perfect.

Pour into your tins and flatten out the tops, spreading so there’s even a little more around the sides especially if you want to stack them as they pop up in the middle during baking.

A little extra: If using a little extra, you can add to the batter at this stage or stir through just before you pour into tins. Our favourite is with raspberries which add a fresh little pop amidst all the chocolate - I just pressed the berries into the batter once they were in their tins and roughly smoothed them over.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 mins if making 3 small tins – see notes on cooking times. A skewer should come out clean and the bottom will be firm. While undercooking is better than overcooking (which dries it out), you also don’t want the cake to not be cooked enough as it will stick to the sides and the middle will collapse. Still tastes great but not what you want in a cake!

Turn out onto a wire rack and cool before assembling and icing or freezing.

Icing

I’ve done this cake with 2 types of icing, both vegan and paleo and each complements the chocolate really well depending on what you feel like. Both are also common ‘healthier’ icings found in vegan and paleo baking that you can use for lots of other things (or eat on its own!!)

Choc avocado icing

·       1 large ripe avocado - must be soft & ready to eat but black is too ripe

·       3 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup (you can sub honey if not vegan)

·       2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder

·       Pinch sea salt

Place the flesh from the avocado, honey and cocoa powder in a processor and blend until smooth. Start with 1-2 tablespoons of each, blend then taste – this way you can adjust for your own preference for sweetness and chocolate-ness. Spread between the cakes and on top – the leftover can be used as a spread for toast (or simply out of the bowl :P)

Coconut cream icing

1 can of coconut cream (not milk)

¼ cup maple syrup (again you can sub honey if you’re not vegan)

1 tsp vanilla extract or essence (optional)

Put tin of coconut cream in the back of the fridge overnight – it needs to get cold but not frozen. You can put a couple of cans in the fridge just in case one doesn’t work (handy especially if you’re making it for a special occasion!). The next morning, remove the can and open the lid. Carefully scoop out the solid cream on the top into a bowl – it should have separated overnight and the liquid portion should be on the bottom, which you can discard.

Add half of your sweetener and vanilla if using and whip until fluffy and smooth. Add more sweetener until it’s sweet enough for your liking – everyone’s preferences are different so I always start with a little less then add more as needed. Store in the fridge until ready to use. You can either serve on the side or use as an icing between layers but you definitely want to wait until the cakes are cooled as this one can melt.

Nourishing Notes:

·       Best tip for baking Paleo is to bring everything to room temperature first, so get your eggs and milk out a few hours before. Otherwise when you add the oil it solidifies and goes chunky, making it hard to distribute.

·       I used 3 silicon cake tins from Daiso (they’re approximately a small dish size) and it stacked them to make a tower cake - it’s actually a pretty small cake but super cute and one I made for my little girl’s first birthday as you can see! You could also do this as muffins but will need to reduce the baking time significantly. I would start at 7 mins for a standard size muffin tin.

·       Cacao vs cocoa powder: in short, cacao is the less processed form of cacao beans (cocoa is fermented AND roasted, making is slightly sweeter). It is also usually more expensive and in regards to baking, has a stronger, slightly more bitter taste so you would usually use less. Cacao powder also tends to absorb more liquid so keep this in mind – I would add an extra teaspoon of oil or milk to the mixture and slightly reduce cooking time. Cocoa powder is more easily found and usually cheaper and less intense in taste - just make sure you select cocoa only and not one with any added sugars. They can be used interchangeably in baking depending on what you have available, just adjust amounts slightly as explained. The original recipe used approximately 10 tbs of cocoa powder but I found 8-9 give a sufficient chocolatey taste especially if using cacao powder

·       I would err on the side of undercooking vs overcooking for this recipe – I usually set the timer for 10 minutes less and check with a skewer. It can really dry out and tastes way better when slightly gooey.  You can freeze the individual cakes easily too, and they still taste great when defrosted. Sinply freeze without icing.

Slow Cooker Chicken (or Beef) Bone Broth

This recipe for slow cooker chicken bone broth combines the nutritional benefits of mineral rich bone broth, the deliciousness of slow cooked meat and the comforting nourishment of what is, essentially, your grandmother's good old fashioned chicken soup. Although this recipe suits the cooler winter months, because it's so easy and no fuss to do, I've made this several times during spring and summer and happily eaten it to get an extra hit of nutrition.

You can also swap the chicken for beef marrow and soup bones from your local butcher to make your own super-nutritious, nutrient-rich beef bone broth. Beef broth has a slightly higher mineral content but is stronger in taste and needs more time to cook due to the larger bone size - at least 24 if not 36 hours. It’s a good option to change things up and because you can usually fairly easily and cheaply get these ‘throw away’ bones from your local butcher.

Ingredients

• 1 organic free range chicken

• 1-2 onions, skin on and quartered

• 3-5 garlic cloves

• 1 small spray-free lemon, washed and quartered

• 3 celery stalks, chopped

• 1-2 cups root veggies of choice, chopped coarsely eg. potato, turnip, swede, carrots

• Seaweed sheets, roughly torn eg. nori, dulse, wakme, kelp

• 1-2cm piece of ginger, squashed

• 3 tbs apple cider vinegar

• Sprig of thyme & 2-3 sage leaves – can used dried if fresh not available

• Pinch of Himalyan or sea salt

• Pinch of turmeric powder

• Pinch ground black pepper or 2-3 whole pepper cloves

• Coconut oil

Method

Add coconut oil to pan and allow to melt (make sure your pan is big enough to fit the chicken in!). Add onion and garlic, stirring until aromatic. Place chicken into pan and braise each side until a golden crust forms. You can add fresh thyme and sage leaves at this stage if you have it.

Place chicken, juices and spices to your slow cooker. Add root veggies and all other ingredients into cooker. Add 2-3 cups of filtered water to slow cooker – enough so it comes 2/3 way up the chicken. Set the slow cooker on for 18 - 24 hours - you can get away with a slightly shorter cooking time due to the smaller bones but 24 hours is recommended to really break down the connective tissue and bone to release as many of the amino acids, minerals, collagen and gelatin as possible.

Then go about your normal day knowing dinner is cooking away!

If you want, you can turn the chicken over midway through the cook – if you don’t, it will still come out wonderfully tender and tasty. The chicken will start to fill your house with a wonderfully delicious smell within a few hours. The chicken is done when the meat falls off the bone easily with a fork or tongs. It should also have no more pink parts.

As meal: Remove chicken meat and veggies and place into bowl with or without some of the bone broth and serve with extra veggies, a piece of crusty sourdough or as is. Season with extra salt and pepper as needed.

As bone broth: Refrigerate remaining chicken and broth overnight. Bring to boil again the next day and simmer on low heat for another 1-2 hours (I usually transfer the chicken and broth to other bowls or a smaller pot so it will fit in my fridge, then reheat it in a pot on the stove).

Strain while still warm, keeping the left over chicken meat and veggies for another meal. Pour the broth into clean glass jars and refrigerate. It will be lovely and gelatinous the next day, full of beautiful collagen, amino acids and minerals. The yellow solidified fat on the top can be skimmed off and saved for cooking or simply left and when reheated will add to the flavour of your broth.

Warm in a saucepan as a hot drink or base for soups and other meals. And please, try not to microwave it or you’ll denature all the wonderful good nutrients you spent so much time and love making!

Nourishing Notes:

• It’s essential to use organic, hormone free & if possible, pastured, meat/bones, as toxicants and chemicals that are given to conventionally farmed animals will be stored in their fat and bones and transferred to your food which is not what you want

• Onions & garlic: provide sulphur, a mineral essential for healthy connective tissue and flexibility; also anti-bacterial and a great prebiotic

• Lemons & ACV: provide acid needed to dissolve bone and protein chains in the chicken to obtain all the goodness out of the carcass

• Celery: provides chloride (essential for stomach acid production needed for good digestion, pH and fluid balance, endocrine function), potassium (regulates blood pressure, needed for cellular waste removal ie. Reduces oedema) and sodium (essential for cell hydration, good muscle contraction and regulating blood pressure)

• Seaweed/nori sheets: high in iodine, needed for healthy thyroid function and to stop your hair falling out

• Root veggies: enhance the flavour and texture of the broth

• Turmeric + pepper: turmeric contains curcumin which is a potent anti-inflammatory while black pepper helps increase curcumin's absorption in the body

Note: If the list if ingredients seems overwhelming, be reassured that you can get away with the meat/bones and liquid, plus whatever veggies you want to add - or none at all! The goodness is in the meat and broth, but I like to get the most bang for my buck when cooking so adding all the extras makes it an even more nutritious meal!

Nutty Protein Balls

Who doesn't like protein balls? These nutty balls are so named because their protein comes mainly from the nut butter used rather than from the addition of protein powder. Whilst I don't have anything against a good quality, no filler whey or vegan protein as a supplement to a good diet (especially post training), I don't often add them to snacks that I make for my partner because he's lactose-intolerant. It also makes these balls pretty much as unprocessed as you can get!

Ingredients

• 1 cup dates, roughly chopped

• 1/2 cup organic nut butter (nuts only with no added nasties)

• 1/3 cup mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin or flax)

• 1 tbs raw cocoa powder

• Pinch cinnamon

• Pinch Himalyan salt

• Desiccated coconut for rolling

Method

Put chopped dates in a blender or food processor and blend until moderately smooth. Add seeds, blend further (they can stay a little chunky). Add nut butter, cinnamon & salt and blend until the mixture comes together. You may need to add a little bit of water to get the mixture smooth.

Spoon out tablespoons of mixture, roll into balls and press into coconut.

These are awesomely stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth-delicious and naturally sweet from the dates. They are great as an alternative to chocolate or perfect as a high energy snack after training or for breastfeeding mums. I would recommend keeping them in the fridge but they won't last for long!