Naturally Sweetened Chocolate Bundt Cake

My sister Katherine’s baby shower was last weekend in Calgary, and it was a great time.

It was super nice to meet some of her friends, who I have never met being that we live in different cities. I had emailed them back and forth a little bit while organizing the shower, so it was great to put faces to their names. Also, her mother-in-law from Saskatchewan was able to make it out as well, so she had a mother and a mother-in-law, and a sister and a sister-in-law in attendance. Good times :).

Her sister-in-law helped with a lot of the decor and the table looked amazing! She made place cards for everyone featuring baby photos of the mom- and dad-to-be. The plate in the centre I picked up at Michael’s – it came with a pen for everyone to sign a message and the parents can keep it on display in the nursery if they like. A nice memory for the baby of everyone who loves him/her!

As the shower was brunch at Thomsons Restaurant in the Hyatt Regency Calgary, there wasn’t a lot of prep to be done. The food was all taken care of! But of course that didn’t stop me :).

I made a cake that would be in keeping with the requirements of the day:

• indulgent (it was, after all, a celebration)
• yet naturally sweetened (my sister is trying to avoid sugar throughout her pregnancy)
• and fairly low-fat, as my sister has problems with high-fat foods and we all want our treats to be that bit healthier!

And although it wasn’t my intention to make a low-calorie cake, this one is less than 200 cals a slice!

Having said that, that is before frosting, and the frosting was made with butter (use Earth Balance butter sticks if you’re vegan – I’ve used those before and they’re fabulous!), so it wasn’t all that healthy ;).

I also used Chocolate-Covered Katie’s 3-Ingredient Chocolate recipe to make favours for the guests – chocolate pops they could take home with them (I couldn’t work out how to get them to stand up so I sliced up naval oranges and, voila! a brunch-appropriate pops stand).

I poured Katie’s chocolate into greased ice cube trays, and when set I moulded it with my hands into ball shapes and then rolled them in either shredded coconut, crushed almonds or cocoa powder. Delicious, but I have to say – a fail for an event like this. I designed them to be take-home favours, but most were getting pretty soft by the time it came time to leave. I underestimated how warm it would be in Calgary and the coconut oil couldn’t stand up to it! So perhaps don’t make these unless you are going to give them to people right out of the fridge before they go!

Here’s me with the guest of honour (thanks to Katherine’s mother-in-law for the pic!):

Here’s the bundt cake in question – for frosting, I doubled this recipe:

Anna’s Naturally Sweetened Decadent Chocolate Bundt Cake

INGREDIENTS (serves lots! We got 14 slices out of it):

1 1/3 cup flour of choice
1 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup agave nectar
4 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup lowfat ricotta cheese
3 medium eggs
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or milk of choice)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

2. In another, smaller bowl, mix coconut sugar, agave nectar, applesauce, melted coconut oil and lowfat ricotta cheese.

3. Whisk the eggs into the smaller bowl with the sweeteners and fat.

4. Add in the almond milk and vanilla extract.

5. Pour liquid mixture into dry, stirring until just combined.

6. Pour into a greased bundt cake tin. Bake until springy to the touch – this will vary depending on your oven. Mine did it in just over 30 minutes but it could take longer for your oven.

7. When cooked, remove from the oven and cool completely. Once cooled, you can make the frosting recipe linked above and ice liberally.

8. Serve and enjoy!

Nutritional information (for cake only) is per slice if cake serves 14:

QUESTION:

• You may or may not have remembered it’s a small thing called Mother’s Day this Sunday…this cake would make as perfect a treat for Mom as it was for my sister, the mother-to-be! But what are you doing this weekend? If your mother is nearby, do you celebrate together?