Ben and I celebrated the two-year anniversary of our first date yesterday. In addition to being an important relationship milestone, I thought having an anniversary was a great excuse to bake. I asked Ben what dessert I should make for our special day, and he said, "Why don't you make a cake?".
It was such a brilliant idea, not only because cakes are the most majestic of all the desserts, but also because I have not posted any cakes on this blog yet. I've posted lots of cupcakes (too many, some might say), but no actual cakes.
I set off in search of a great paleo chocolate cake recipe to use, since I haven't really made any paleo chocolate cupcakes that I could adapt (although these muffins came pretty close). When I found this recipe from Zenbelly Catering, I could tell it was a hit from the dozens of raving comments. Food blogs are the best! Try to find that many (or any) reader responses to a recipe in an actual print cookbook.
All those readers were right--this is an awesome cake! I made a few changes to the cake recipe, including adding some coffee to deepen the chocolate flavor. Don't worry, the cake won't taste like coffee (or coconut, or almonds--the flavor is pure chocolate!).
For the ganache, though, I wanted to try something a little different, so I added peppermint extract. If you don't like mint and chocolate, you can just leave that out. Ben and I both loved it, but we are the kind of people who drink hot chocolates with peppermint schnapps all winter long. (Is it time for those yet? Almost? They are basically the only thing I like about cold weather).
I wanted to make a whipped cream filling as suggested in the original recipe, but my coconut cream didn't have enough time to set up in the fridge. Make sure you click on over to the original recipe if you want to try the cream layer for your cake--it sounds amazing! I'm all over that for our third anniversary, or the next time another cake-worthy occasion comes along.
