Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting

So...here's the thing.  I love to bake.  Since the time I was old enough to use the oven, I have loved to bake.  My mom got me a cookbook called Who Is That Short Chef?  I think the only recipes I ever used in there were for cookies and cakes. (Confession: I still own that cookbook and it has, to date, the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever found.) Trying to eat well is really depressing when you love to bake.  Because, sadly, most things you bake are delicious...but not exactly good for you.  So, if you haven't been able to tell, I am always on the prowl for healthy ways to indulge in my love of baking. Tonight was no exception!  The biggest problem with trying to bake healthy stuff is that about half the time it is majorly gross.  It doesn't taste AT ALL like its decadent counterpart.  It tastes like dirt...or grass. Or the consistency is so off that it's inedible.  Something.  So I like sharing the ones that are successful!

William has had a stretch of good days at school.  And he wasn't a superfan of the cupcakes I made for his birthday (I had to use vegan butter for the frosting and William didn't like the flavor).  So I was feeling bad - and thinking he needed a sweet surprise after dinner.  I stumbled upon a healthy chocolate cake recipe and decided to give it a go when I saw how easy it was. I whipped it up in about 10 minutes! I think William liked it...

Note the chocolate-induced glazed eyes

The cake turned out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself!  Since William inhaled his, here is what the cake looks like, other than an empty plate:

And here's how I made it:

• 1 and ½ cups white whole-wheat flour 
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sugar 
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup grapeseed oil (canola would work great too, I just didn't have any)
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar 
• ¾ cup cold water

Mix dry ingredients. Then add wet. Mix with a fork (not beaters). Pour into a greased and lined cake pan, and bake in a preheated oven at 355F for about thirty minutes. Cool before frosting.

Then, I decided to make a chocolate peanut butter frosting that uses no powdered sugar at all.  

• 1/2 cup peanut butter 
• 5 TB pure maple syrup 
• 4 TB cocoa powder
• 3 TB milk of choice (I used almond milk)
• 1 1/2  tsp pure vanilla extract

Blend everything in a food processor. 

And, just for funsies, here is the first garden strawberry of the season!!!