So yes, this post is about cake! Cake is probably as non-alkaline as you can be, filled with sugar, flour, dairy and fat, it is anything but healthy. However, birthdays are a time for celebration, a special day to celebrate the light that you bring to others and in doing so they also call for that devilishly delicious confection! So what is a girl to do who is trying to eat alkaline when such an event happens? She has to make tough decisions about cake!

Luckily, I am the cake maker in my family, growing up I had perfected the birthday cake and experimented with a variety of flavors and styles. Ganaches, buttercreams, preserves, curds, and more. I even considered becoming a baker at one point as I found baking to be relaxing while meeting my desire to care for others through nourishing them, as food nourishes so much more than the stomach. As my food habits have converted to more healthful practices, I moved away from baking and focused more on elemental usage of vegetables and main meal preparation. Recently, you will have noticed that I have experimented with cookies and raw energy balls a bit on the blog in attempts to transform those treats into nourishing goodies, plus I was really missing cookies.

I have delved into raw cakes a bit but nut allergies are an issue in my family so 'cheesecake' was definitely out this time around. I have never tackled the revered birthday cake and quite frankly felt that I had left cake in my past life of sugar comatose and was not particularly keen on reentering that stage but alas my grandma's 90th birthday arrived and she wanted her cake!

Making cakes for other people is a special challenge, you want to create something that sets the person of honors taste buds aflame. My grandma's favorite cake is lemon but being the sweet woman that she is she told me that I should probably make a chocolate cake since not everyone likes lemon and everyone loves chocolate.

So you see, I had a lot of choices to make, at first I was just going to make a traditional cake, fill it with my grams favorite lemon curd and call it a day and then I found Pierre Herme's Riviera cake, a delicious flourless chocolate cake filled with decadent chocolate mouse, rich lemon cream and covered in chocolate ganache. It sounded perfect but also about as unhealthy as a cake could possibly be and that is when the guilt started. How could I possibly make this cake for my family knowing that it is so unhealthy? So I put on my thinking cap and determined that I would take this delicious cake and model a healthier version after it.

This is where the hard decisions began, for I had to determine my list of priorities, was it more important to go flourless, omit refined sugar, remove dairy, or forgo eggs? After much debate I decided that eliminating refined sugars and bleached flours was the most important aspect, simultaneously I decided to maintain the Pierre Herme's lemon cream as it is my grandma's favorite and at 90 she deserved to have what she wants. The lemon cream is made by adding butter in as the last step thus turning the curd into a creamy mousse like consistency. You could definitely eliminate the butter in order to completely rid the cake of dairy. Coconut sugar could also be used to replace the regular sugar, I just didn't have any on hand.

So what did I do, I went with a chocolate paleo style birthday cake developed by Elana's Pantry that used coconut oil and flour as well as honey, a chocolate coconut cream avocado mouse, the lemon cream (which was traditional and therefore contained sugar and butter) as well as a dark chocolate glaze, creating a divine, creamy, chocolaty and tart cake which surprisingly worked well together. Chocolate and lemon seem like they would be at odds but in reality it was beautiful and best of all, my grandma was happy and loved it!

I had to have enough cake for 20 people and thus made two cakes, a 10in and a 9in thus doubling all recipes. the following recipe is recommended for a 10in cake

Elana's Paleo Birthday Cake

1 cup Coconut Flour

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

16 Eggs

1 cup Coconut Oil, melted

1 cup Honey

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10in. springform pan with coconut oil and cut a parchment paper circle to line the bottom of the pan. In a bowl combine the coconut flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

In a mixer or using a hand mixer, blend the eggs, coconut oil and honey until combined. Slowly stir in the flour mixture until well combined. Pour into pan and bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until the cake is set and a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Coconut Cream Avocado Mousse

6 ripe Avocados

3/4 cup Honey

1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

2 14oz cans Coconut Milk (thai style)

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

The night before making the cake, place the coconut milk in the fridge upside down in order to separate the cream from the water. Open the cans upside down and pour the water into a jar for later use. Place the cream into the chilled bowl of a mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat the coconut cream until stiff peaks form.

Meanwhile, in a food processor combine the avocado, cocoa powder, honey, and salt. Blend until smooth. transfer to a bowl and fold in the coconut cream. Place in the fridge until ready to use.

Pierre Herme's Lemon Cream

1 cup Sugar

Zest of 3 Lemons

Juice for those 3 Lemons

4 Eggs

1 cup + 5 tbs Unsalted Butter, cut into chunks

Place a small amount of water into a pot and bring to a boil. Place the sugar and zest in a heat proof bowl and rub the sugar between your fingers until it is moist and fragrant. Whisk in the eggs and the lemon juice. Place over the pot of boiling water and whisk often until the mixture becomes thick and you can clearly see tracks from the whisk this will happen once the mixture has reached 180 degrees. Remove from heat and pour into a blender or food processor. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

With the blender or food processor running add the butter, a few pieces at a time. Once incorporated, blend for another 3 minutes or so until rich and creamy.

Assembly

Slice the cake into 4 different layers. Place the first layer at the bottom of the springform pan. Spread half of the mousse over the cake, top with another layer of cake. Top with the lemon cream and then the 3rd layer of cake, repeat with the remaining mousse and finish off with the final cake layer. In a small pan heat 1 cup of coconut milk until simmering. Pour over 4 oz of dark chocolate. let sit for 1 minute and then stir until smooth. Pout over the top of the cake.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Remove from springform and enjoy!

The end of summer takes with it the bounty of strawberries, summer squash, tomatoes and cucumbers but not before one final push of all its deliciousness! You will notice that at many farmers markets, right before the greens and butternuts make their fall appearances, that the summer crop makes one last stand as if it is holding on to those longer days of warmth. Holding true to that pattern, John @royalacresfarmandcsa loaded up my basket full of zucchini last week.

Zucchini is one of those items that seems to over run our lives, during the high season it is often joked that a zucchini can be found in every car in the parking lot due to overzealous home growers left with an overabundance of crop. Personally, I love the versatility that zucchini offers, not only can you eat it raw, made into noodles, grilled, baked, or sauteed but it can also be frozen and utilized in baked goods. And who doesn't love to throw in a little extra nutrition into their baked goods?!

With so much zucchini on hand I challenged myself to make a zucchini bread that was not loaded with refined sugars, bleached flours, and eggs. I wanted to highlight the zucchini as opposed to drowning it in fat and calories. This loaf started as an experiment but soon became a favorite that I have made 3 times this week, it's that good! It is incredibly moist, flavorful, and dense and satisfies that need for a treat without harming your system.

This bread can be made vegan by utilizing maple syrup or agave as well as gluten free if made using gluten free oats, it has healthy fat from coconut oil and best of all, tons of zucchini! I hope that you love it as much as I do.

Healthy Honey and Banana Zucchini Oat Bread

1 Ripe Banana

1 tbs Vanilla Extract

1 Zucchini, Shredded (about 2 cups)

1/3 cup Coconut Oil, melted

1/2 cup Honey, Maple Syrup or Agave

1 cup of Oat Flour

1 1/2 cups of Rolled oats

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tbs Baking Powder

1 tbs Cinnamon

1 tsp Pink Himalayan Sea Salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bread pan using coconut oil and set aside. In a large bowl combine the oat flour (I make mine by throwing 1 cup of oats into my food processor and processing into a flour), oats, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a mixer, beat the bananas until mashed. Add the vanilla extract, melted coconut oil and honey, processing until combined. Add the shredded zucchini, slowly add the oat mixture to the wet ingredients. Pour into the prepared pan, smoothing it a loaf form, sprinkling with sunflower seeds if desired. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool.

Enjoy and healthy eating!

Cake ReMake: Paleo Chocolate Birthday Cake with Lemon Cream & Avocado Chocolate Mousse

Elana's Paleo Birthday Cake

Coconut Cream Avocado Mousse

Pierre Herme's Lemon Cream

Assembly

Healthy Vegan Honey and Banana Zucchini Oat Bread

Healthy Honey and Banana Zucchini Oat Bread