It was my sister’s baby shower this weekend, I’m so excited to by Aunty Vanessa for the first time very soon. In case you couldn’t guess it’s a girl, we haven’t quite embraced the gender neutral philosophy, because, well.. we love PINK! We had four gluten sensitive attendees which gave me an excuse to go to town and bake – catering for others and not just Scarlett and I. That being said, everyone had a slice and they all wanted the recipe so here it is…
I made a similar cake for my daughter’s birthday party, see the picture below, she had a Forrest School party in November and wanted a pink cake. My daughter is gluten sensitive and I wanted her to be able to have a party where she could eat everything, we also don’t eat sugar (I’ll leave that for a whole other post) but I don’t believe eating healthily means deprivation and so this cake is for all those striving to eat in a healthier way but still want to be able to celebrate with everyone else. Cake fits into my 80/20 philosophy, I use healthier ingredients but I don’t eat cake every day, cake is my 20% indulgence!
The buttercream (frosting) I tried to keep quite authentic to how a real cake tastes. Although neither Scarlett or I tolerate dairy very well, butter and ghee seems to be fine for us so I make the icing with butter but you could use ghee (butter with the problematic proteins removed). You could use palm shortening which is often used in paleo baking but please make sure it is sustainably sourcd as many rain forests are being destroyed for this product.
The cake has a chocolate buttercream centre and if you don’t want a pink cake you could cover it in the chocolate buttercream all over.
If you like pink like us, you can alter the different shades of pink with the amount of beetroot powder you use, I used 1 teaspoon for my daughter’s cake and nearer 1 tablespoon for the main picture cake.
Any leftover cake, I find freezes really well and I take out a slice for my daughter to have at other celebrations.
- ¾ cup of coconut flour
- 1 cup of extra virgin olive Oil
- 9 Eggs
- ½ cup of cacao powder
- ¾ cup of maple syrup
- Pinch of Sea Salt
- ½ Teaspoon of vanilla powder
- 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
- Chocolate Buttercream for the Centre
- ¼ cup of unsalted butter or ghee at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon of cacao powder
- Icing / Frosting
- 1 cup of butter or ghee at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons of arrowroot powder
- 2 teaspoons of coconut flour
- ¼ cup of maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon of beetroot powder
- Use a hand whisk to blend the eggs
- Add the olive oil, maple syrup and blend further
- Carefully stir in the flour, cacao powder, vanilla powder, bicarbonate of soda, cream of tartar, sea salt
- Take two 8" sandwich tins, (I use the tins with the release bottoms, much easier for turning out).coat in a small amount of olive oil and sprinkle with coconut flour ensuring it's well distributed to ensure that the cake releases easily.
- Divide the mixture between the tins and give them a gentle bang on the worktop to ensure the mixture is flat on top for stacking.
- Put in the oven at 180 degrees for 30-35 minutes
- Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a cake rack.
- For the buttercream, whisk all the ingredients together and when the cake is cool spread evenly over the middle and then cover the cake.
So pretty! And it sounds delicious!
Thanks Tina.
How fun to have a baby shower and become an aunty! This cake looks like the perfect way to celebrate that!
So pretty, and I love healthy recipes for celebration – you can have your cake and eat it too! 🙂
Congratulations on your soon to be aunty role. And I’m with you…cake definitely falls into the 20% category.
This chocolate cake sounds delicious! Love that beautiful frosting with the beetroot powder. My daughter would LOVE the color of the frosting, so fun!
Love the color and texture of the cake. It’s so cute and delicious !
LOVE that you used beetroot powder for the frosting! So creative and such a cool pop of color!
Love the beet root powder to make the icing pink!
A fantastic recipe, especially impressive that you have icing and buttercream as they are really difficult to get right. I’m definitely going to give this a go!
This cake is so pretty- I love the color! It sounds delicious as well. Thanks for sharing!
Lovely! I love that you used beet powder for the frosting!
This chocolate cake looks absolutely divine! If I make it, my family would celebrate 🙂
Looks really nice with the fruit on top! Never used beet powder before but must try it out!
Such nourishing ingredients for a cake! I absolutely adore the colour of that icing too… I’m grabbing my coat 😛
So pretty! Love that beetroot frosting!