Stuff Your Face

Happy Birthday Miaka, and Rekindling a Spark

Well dear readers and fellow culinary enthusiasts, I have hit the jackpot. Miaka’s birthday is coming up this week (July 5th), and she asked me if I had any healthy versions of chocolate cupcakes so she could make some at home. If I lived closer I’d make her something amazing myself, something color-tinged and horror-driven… and packed full of chocolate. As it is, I have to settle for helping her out with finding a good recipe that I know she’ll enjoy and is worthy of birthday cake status. I couldn’t think of anything off-hand, and promised her I would do a couple days worth of research.

I was expecting to find two or three, at the most five recipes, and that I wouldn’t even need a full two days to write her up a post. I thought, there couldn’t be that many versions with more than a slight variation in them… could there? A little bit of digging around on the internet and through some of my favorite food blogs showed me just how shamefully wrong I was. I could scour through all of them for two weeks and keep finding new and exciting variations on healthy chocolate cakes to suggest, not to mention delicious frostings and fillings for them.

Seeing all this creativity made me realize, I’ve been away from baking for too long. Sure, my oven is on the major (and probably permanent) fritz. I shouldn’t let that deter me from doing what I love. Browsing through piles of recipes, I could feel that creative center in me buzzing back to life. Reading these, thoughts were whirling and ideas were brewing. 

I encourage you to make some and try out some alternative, healthier baking ingredients, even if it’s not your birthday. I know I will be.

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Cakes, Cupcakes, and Brownies

☆ Black Bean Brownies
(gluten-free, sugar-free)

Heidi of 101 Cookbooks assures us there’s not even a hint of beany flavor in these, and the bean puree “delivers deliciously dense, bite-sized squares of melt-in-your-mouth fudge-textured brownies.” 

Now, I know these aren’t cakes or cupcakes, but they could easily be poured into cute little cupcake papers and baked off as if they were. Topped with some of the frosting below they’d be just as good (if not better) as the fudgiest, most chocolate-packed cupcakes you ever saw.

☆ Black Bean Cake
(gluten-free, sugar-free)

Healthy Indulgences’ version of the black bean brownie, but since it’s formulated as a cake this time around I expect it would be a bit lighter and fluffier, rather than dense and fudgey. It comes with a recipe for chocolate buttercream as well, just a bit further down the link page.

☆ Queen Mothers Cake
(gluten-free)

Saveur’s version of a flourless chocolate cake uses an almond meal to keep the consistency light, and packs an extra punch of chocolatey goodness from an espresso-spiked ganache glaze.

☆ Chocolate Malted Cupcakes

Molly of Orangette describes these two-times-a-charm cupcakes: “With two types of chocolate and a half-cup of buttermilk, these cakes bake up to a pretty shade of brunette, with a rich, tender crumb that shines under the light. Capped with a lazy swirl of soft, malted frosting, it’s like a milkshake, but with a more satisfying chew.” Who can resist a milkshake in cupcake form?

☆ Chocolate Soufflé Cupcakes with Mint Cream
(gluten-free)

These flourless chocolate cupcakes from Smitten Kitchen differ from the norm in that eggs are separated, the whites beaten into a fluffy addition for the batter that keeps them cloud-light (but still rich) inside meringue-crisp shells.

☆ Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake

Smitten Kitchen’s cake may not be as far on the healthy side as some of the others listed here, but it will have loads of flavor. Some of the sugar could reasonably be cut out if you have ripe pears to use. “One of the coolest things about baking this cake is the eggs, that are beaten far beyond ‘combined’ or ‘fluffy’ but until they have the volume of a shiny, velvety ribbon of a custard.” Also, it has browned butter, and my favorite fruit-chocolate combination… pear. Yum!

☆ Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake
(gluten-free, lactose-free, eggless)

Here’s a chocolate cake just about anyone can enjoy… no flour or dairy of any kind, still dense and rich and fudgey. Pureed black-eyed peas and firm tofu keep this cake from Novel Eats moist and healthy.

☆ Chocolate, Banana, and Teff Cupcakes
(gluten-free)

Aran of Cannelle et Vanille lends a bit of healthy insight into these cupcakes: “Teff is an ancient grain from Ethiopia that is rich in iron, calcium and protein. It has a distinct rich flavor and dark color that I think goes great with chocolate.”

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Frostings and Fillings

☆ Ricotta and Coffee Mousse
(gluten-free, eggless)

I can attest both of these flavors are amazing together and even better with chocolate. If you want to sneak in a pinch of cinnamon, that and the coffee together will make the chocolate flavor of your cake even more chocolatey. If you’re worried about it being too much chocolate, this ricotta mousse from Saveur will be just the thing to cut through some of that richness.

☆ Julia Child’s Chocolate Mousse
(gluten-free)

The perfect chocolate filling for the perfect chocolate cake, courtesy of David Lebovitz.

☆ Lemon Curd
(gluten-free)

Joy of Baking’s lemon curd has been the recipe I’ve used for quite some time now. It can be easily adapted to use any type of citrus fruit you like… lime, orange, tangerine, anything. You may need to adjust the sugar a bit depending on how sweet or tart the fruits you’re using are, but any type is sure to turn up satisfactory results.

☆ Buttercream
(gluten-free, eggless)

Another classic go-to from Joy of Baking, this buttercream can be adapted to just about any flavor you like. Stir in a little jam for a fruity note, sprinkle with spices or espresso powder, or add melted chocolate as they suggest.