OK So August is always a very busy month – summer vacations, grad parties, get togethers, pool parties etc etc and in our household there is more! Three out of four people in our house have their birthdays in August ! He He…yes, I made sure both my kids were born on my birth month 🙂
I always try and bake special cakes for each of the children’s birthdays but this year since we were vacationing in India for part of August, my son’s birthday got celebrated there. And then last week was both mine and my daughter’s birthdays (our birthdays are just two days apart!). Since we had just picked some very delicious peaches and plums from the local farm that week, I had this vision of an upside down peach and plum cake. And I was looking at recipes on pinterest. I was planning on making a regular cake for everyone (so not paleo or AIP) however the pictures had me drooling so much that I wanted to now make an AIP cake. Come on, it was my birthday after all! And so, I decided to bake the cake the next day after my birthday so that we could cut it for my daughter’s birthday. And I did end up making a beautiful looking AIP upside down peach and plum cake and I was mighty pleased with myself for that.
But then came the next morning of my daughter’s birthday and suddenly all sorts of doubts started creeping into my mind. What if the cake was not very good? My poor daughter, she would have to eat a cake that was just ok just because her mom has to eat AIP. Hmm…this needed to be rectified. But I also needed to pack since we were pretty much ready to go on a short vacation that Friday shortly after my daughter came back from school. So I hurriedly finished packing. My husband was working from home and was constantly reminding me to get everything together and be ready so we all could head out at 4PM. But that doubt about the cake kept growing bigger and bigger until I could take it no more and I saw myself at the kitchen counter rushing to bake a chocolate cake at 2 PM. I had seen a flourless chocolate cake long ago in a magazine (actually it was a flight magazine ! lol!) and I had taken a pic of the recipe (yes I am weird like that). So now that came in handy and I replaced the sugar with maple syrup and the chocolate chips with paleo chocolate chips. As I placed the cake pan in the oven and turned around, my husband entered the kitchen and started shaking his head. I said ‘I didn’t want to disappoint her’.
And guess what ? She was definitely not disappointed as not only this chocolate cake came out fabulously but the peach and plum cake was also absolutely delicious! My concerns there turned out to be totally unwarranted! Watch out for my next post to get that recipe!
This cake tasted great as is according to the family but I also topped it with some frozen mixed berries and that took it over the top. My daughter’s huge smile meant that my extra effort was totally worth it 🙂
Btw I used grass-fed butter in this recipe so it was not Paleo but I believe you could use coconut oil and make a paleo version since in the past I have been able to easily substitute butter with coconut oil in baking recipes. I did not do that since I wanted this cake to have a buttery flavor giving it that decadence. If you try it with coconut oil, do let me know in the comments how it turned out!
- 4 oz chocolate chips unsweetened
- 1 stick or 8 tbsp grass fed butter
- 3 eggs
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- Take an 8 inch round springform pan or a cake pan and line the bottom and sides with parchment paper.
- Preheat oven to 375 deg F.
- In a medium size glass bowl, add the chocolate chips and the butter and place in microwave for 30 secs. Take out bowl and stir using a fork and place back in the microwave for 30 secs again. Take out and again stir with the fork until you see the chocolate chips melting with the butter (if this does not happen, heat for another 15-20 secs or so)
- In another bowl, beat the eggs together using an electric mixer until the yellow and the white are completely blended together as an emulsion (about 1 minute).
- Now slowly add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture little by little and mix using electric mixer. Continue this until all egg mixture is incorporated. Now add the maple syrup, cocoa, vanilla and the salt and mix again till blended.
- Pour this mixture onto the prepared pan. Bake for 15-17 mins until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool before carefully removing cake from pan. Serve warm or chilled topped with fresh or frozen berries.
