Know Better, Do Better!!: Sugar-Free Chocolate Cake for The Boy

Baking fairy :)

So my Little Daughter is having her 2nd birthday party this coming Saturday at my In-Law's house. (I love them, they are amazing.) We're ordering a cake for her from a place in town because of the number of people that will be attending would cause me to have to spend 2 days baking, and I have no time for that. Plus, the cakes we buy there have always been great. (They cost too much, but they know that no one in the world has that much time or toy-free space to work in, and we're screwed if we don't get one there. They could probably charge twice the amount, and some of us would still get our cakes there out of nothing but desperation.)

Anyway, because our son can't have refined sugars (and I'm not even trying the substitutes because they aren't healthy for ANYone), I have been in kind of a pickle. What do I do about him not getting any cake? Doesn't seem fair that he'll have like 25 people around him eating it, but he can't. He's four. I'm not about to let that happen. So I did some research and found a recipe that looks like it has some serious potential to be tweaked into an edible sugar-free chocolate cake.
**I do want to mention that I'm writing this in trust that the recipe and additional information I found will work out. I don't KNOW if it is going to work well, yet, but will update with how it worked out.**

Here's the recipe, and I found it HERE:

Oven preheated to 375 degrees. Square 8" pan greased and ready to go.

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup of cocoa powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Mix together in a bowl. Add to the dry these mixed wet ingredients:

1 cup of water

1/4 cup of vegetable oil

1 tablespoon of white vinegar

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool in the pan for ten minutes, then removed from the pan to cool on a rack.

This cake gets that reddish tinge from the cocoa powder, where red velvet cake possibly originated from. The baking soda and the vinegar react to form this great squishy cake. You need the vinegar to activate the baking soda. You won't taste it!

Now I'm going to have to replace the sugar with honey.
How much honey does it take to replace a cup of sugar? Oh, I looked that up too. (I found the following information HERE.)

How should I alter my recipe?

1. Use Less Honey: I’m sure you realize that honey is much sweeter than sugar, so in recipes you need to use 1/3 less to achieve the same results.

2. Reduce Liquids: Unlike sugar, honey contains water, so reduce the liquids to about 1/5. In addition, you might add a small amount of extra flour and baking soda if you are baking a cake, for instance. This will help it to rise up nicely.

Another good quality of honey is that not only does it contain water, but it actually attracts moisture. This is a great thing for baking because your cakes will stay fresh and moist.

3. Adjust Your Oven Temperature: Also, cakes and breads made with honey are much better looking than cakes made with sugar. You will find that the cakes and breads are a nice rich, golden brown color. Adjust your oven temperature down alittle (350 down to 325) to make sure your cakes aren’t too brown. As each oven is different, start out with a small adjustment and change it if you need to next time.

What Kind Of Honey Should I use For Baking?:

For baking, it is best to choose a mild honey, like blossom. The clearer the honey, the easier it is to use for baking because the flavor is generally milder than darker honeys, so it won’t interfere with the flavors you’re trying to obtain.

Well, "honey fanatic", I'm using organic raw honey. It's fantastic, and has a more mild taste than the nasty honey I bought the last time. *You can read about it HERE.*

Organic, raw honey

FTR, when it comes to helping my son find a way to navigate his life without refined sugars, I can completely and fully set aside my own beliefs in veganism. The truth is I would do anything for any one of my kids, no matter what. No. Matter. What.

Now...frosting. (It's NOT cake without frosting!!) I found this recipe HERE.

Healthy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Total Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 1 cup frosting

~This Chocolate Buttercream uses healthy, whole-food ingredients. Sugar-Free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Nut-Free (when using sunflower butter), Gluten-Free, Paleo, and Vegan.

Ingredients

2/3 cup mashed sweet potato*
1/4-1/2 cup pitted dates
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 Tablespoons coconut oil
2 Tablespoons nutbutter of choice (I used sunflower seed butter. Tahini or almond will also work well)
1/2 cup dairy-free milk (coconut or almond work well)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

In a saucepan, melt the coconut oil. Whisk in the cocoa powder to create a chocolate syrup.
In a blender or food processor, blend together the dates and milk to create a sweet milk. Blend until smooth. More dates will create a sweeter frosting, less dates will create a darker frosting.
Add the sweet potato, nut butter, and vanilla to the blender and blend until smooth.
Stir in chocolate-coconut syrup mix until well-incorporated and smooth.
Use right away or keep in fridge until later use. The frosting will become more firm while in fridge.

Notes

*I used baked sweet potatoes and take the skin off before mashing.

~Now, we don't have Coconut oil. GASP! I know. Crazy. So I'll be substituting margarine for that...unless I go all nuts shopping and just spend the $12 for a jar of C.O.
~As for "nut butter", I'll be using peanut butter. The Boy is a super-fan.

~Also, I'll be using regular 3% milk, not almond milk. I buy the "vanilla" almond milk, and that is sweetened. I'm not doing all of this so the almond milk can mess it all up.

Clearly I'm going to be cooking some sweet potatoes, and stopping at the Bulk Barn to get some supplies. I have some real work ahead of me. LOL I hope the Baking Fairies help me out. Baking has never really been my strong point, but this amazing little boy deserves to have something that makes him feel special, and not just "different".

*fingers crossed!!*