I know it has been waayyy too long since my last post and I am terribly sorry, so many things have happened in the last few months that it is difficult to choose what to discuss first. The biggest being that I finally took the plunge and relocated to the sunny state of Florida in order to soak up the heat, overflow my heart, and fill up my belly with as many fresh and delicious fruits and veggies as I can find.

Leaving New York was bittersweet and I miss my friends and family but am looking forward to the adventures that come my way and the many new lessons that I have lined up for myself since learning is always the main goal. With moving, adjusting, cleaning, decorating and essentially figuring out where I am the blog took a back seat and I am truly sorry to have not been here providing you inspiration for your healthy eating goals but I do promise to get back on the grind and start creating some interesting dishes with some Florida local flavor from this point onward.

Today was a big day for me, I ventured out and found an amazing farmers market that will definitely be inspiring some awesome dishes, the Yellow Green Farmers Market in Hollywood is a wonderful place with tons of great options and is essentially modeled after European markets with fresh fish, meats, cheeses, vegetables, honeys, hot sauces, nuts, dried fruit, and tons of great booths dedicated to feeding you healthy foods. I was super excited to find a number of options geared towards raw food and vegan eating and guess what, there was even one alkaline booth!

With so many choices it was definitely a bit overwhelming at first but I found some great produce and it inspired my creativity as well. My first dish based off of these awesome supermarket finds is going to be a simple salad that is filling due to the good fats from the half of the Florida avocado that will act as our 'bowl'.

Florida avocados are larger than the hass variety but are also sweeter so it is important to counterbalance that sweetness with a little saltiness and a little tang. This salad combines watercress, peaches, mangoes, onion and garlic with Mexican limes and a touch of sriracha - you have to bring the heat when you are in Florida. I hope that you enjoy!

Florida Avocado stuffed with Watercress, Peaches, Mango, and Lime

1 Florida Avocado

Bunch of Watercress

1 Peach, cubed

1/2 Mango, cubed

1 Garlic Clove, minced

1/2 Red Onion, chopped

3-4 Mexican Limes

1 tsp Olive Oil

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt to taste

Sriracha

Halve the avocado and remove the pit. Cut a small portion of the bottom in order to get it to stay flat on the plate.

In a bowl combine the mangoes, peaches, onion and garlic. Drizzle the olive oil and squeeze 1-2 limes over the mixture to taste depending on how sweet your fruit is. Add a bit of salt and toss with the watercress. Fill the avocado with the salad and drizzle with sriracha. Enjoy and Healthy Eating!

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!

Farmers Market Find: Florida Avocado stuffed with Watercress, Peaches, Mango and Lime

Florida Avocado stuffed with Watercress, Peaches, Mango, and Lime

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