Monday's Menu: DESSERT!!

Print the Paleo chocolate cake, ganache, and chocolate dipped strawberries recipe here!

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I hope everyone had a great one. They ALWAYS go by too fast, am I right?

I thought I'd switch up the usual "Monday's Menu" meal posts by including this Paleo cake I made for my friend's birthday recently - mainly because I thought it was so pretty! The cake was a tad dry and when I used this recipe before I experienced the same thing, so I've tweaked it and added notes on how to make the cake more moist. The Paleo ganache frosting was on point, if I do say so myself. I'm not sure how Paleo recipes really consider these Enjoy Life chocolate chips to be allowed, but I see them used all the time in Paleo recipes so who am I to begin questioning the logic?

The dessert menu (Paleo only): chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and chocolate dipped strawberries.

Shopping List

8oz organic strawberries
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup cacao powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
8 large, organic eggs (7 full eggs, 1 egg yolk)
1/2 cup + 1.5 to 2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup raw honey
10oz Enjoy Life (dairy, nut, soy, and gluten free) chocolate chips

Paleo Chocolate Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350* F. Mix together the coconut flour, cacao powder, sea salt, and baking soda in a medium to large mixing bowl. Using a hand mixer, blend in 7 large eggs and 1 egg white, the melted coconut oil, and honey. Mix together thoroughly. Allow the batter to sit for 3-5 minutes as the coconut flour absorbs some of the liquid. The batter will still seem very runny, but this is normal.

Grease two 6" round cake pans with coconut oil. Divide the cake batter evenly between the two cake pans, and bake for 25-30 minutes. Check the cake by inserting a toothpick into the center. When the toothpick comes out clean the cake is done. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting it.

*Notes:

At 25 minutes, mine was NOT ready to be removed. At 30 minutes it still seemed to need a little time. Each oven is different, so just be mindful of this. I probably should have taken mine out at 30 minutes to keep it more moist.
The recipe above has been revised from the original I used (that was a little dry) and adapted to using 1 egg white instead of the last whole egg based on this article I read while writing this post on how to make a cake more moist.

Paleo Chocolate Dipped Strawberries:

The top of the cake is pretty small as it's only 6" in circumference. I was able to position 5 strawberries on the top of the cake, you might could add more if you prefer.

Using a double boiler (I place a smaller sauce pan into a slightly larger saucepan filled halfway with water), melt about 3-4 oz of the Paleo friendly chocolate chips. (Do not worry if you have extra melted as you will add more to melt to this same pan shortly.)

Wash and dry the strawberries you plan to use. Dip them into the melted chocolate and lay on a parchment paper lined plate. When you've finished dipping the strawberries you can place them into the refrigerator so that the chocolate hardens faster.

Paleo Chocolate Ganache Frosting:

Using the same sauce pan with the melted chocolate, add the remainder of your Paleo friendly chocolate chips to the pan and return it to the double boiler set up to melt the chocolate. Add in 1.5 to 2 tbsp of coconut oil and stir thoroughly to melt the coconut oil and blend it into the chocolate to create your "ganache".

If the bottom cake is uneven at its top then you can slice off the uneven section using a knife so that the top cake sits evenly. Spoon the ganache onto the top of the cake that will be your bottom layer so that there's ganache between the two cake layers. Next, carefully stack the second 6" round cakes on top of the other. Proceed to spoon the ganache generously over the top of the (2 tiered) cake, allowing it to drizzle down the side of the cake.

You can attempt to coat the side of the cake, however the ganache is very runny and doesn't really fully harden so it may turn in to a big mess around the bottom of the cake. If that doesn't faze you then feel free to do that!

Immediately add the chocolate dipped strawberries to the top of the cake to allow them be secured a little bit as the ganache hardens up some.

Last note before I close out is that if* you're wondering what the difference is between cacao powder and cocoa powder, you can read more about it here. I was curious and looked it up. Note to self, try to stick with cacao powder when possible.

I hope you enjoyed this dessert recipe and please share with someone! If you haven't already, don't forget to subscribe to my blog so you don't miss out on future posts. If you're interested in my previous recipe posts you can click here to view them. =)

I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday!

XOXO

Every Piece Fits

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