Paleo Chocolate Cake

I know... the first paleo recipe I blog about would be dessert!  I'm sure you're not surprised by that ;) Real quick story about how I ended up baking this cake. It was one of my close girlfriend's 30th birthday.  Her husband and I thought about ordering this paleo cake from this restaurant, but for 12 serving/slices... it would have costs us $65! Umm... the cake was good, but is it really worth $65?!?! Anyway, my gf's husband asked if I could bake a paleo cake.  Uhh... I can bake, but paleo is a whole new ballgame for me since I have yet to venture into the baking area.  

However, being me... I took the challenge and researched on some recipes.  I finally decided on this one from Elana's Pantry (with some modifications, of course!).  I told my girlfriend's husband that if the recipe failed, I would bring gluten-free cupcakes from Crave.  Luckily, the cake was a success!  3/4 of the cake was destroyed and my girlfriend was thrilled to have some cake to take home.  

Ingredients for the cake:

• 3/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup natural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 10 (yes, ten) eggs
• 1 cup coconut oil, melted 
• 1.5 cups agave nectar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon orange zest (I used tangerine  zest since I did not have any oranges) 

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degree F.  
2. Grease the cake pans with coconut oil (you can either use a sheet cake pan or 2 nine-inch cake pans)
3. In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda (dry ingredients)
4. In another bowl (large) blend together eggs, oil, agave nectar, vanilla, and zest (I actually blended all this in my Kitchen Aide mixer)
5. Mix the dry ingredients into the large bowl until everything is blended
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 35-40 minutes
7. Allow the cake to complete cool before frosting

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 1 cup of dark chocolate (chopped or chips), preferably 70% or higher 
• 1/2 cup of coconut oil (melted)
• 2 tbsp. agave nectar
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan (small), melt chocolate and coconut oil together over low heat
2. Stir in agave, vanilla and salt
3. Place the sauce pan (with the contents of course) in the freezer for about 10 minutes to cool
4. Remove from the freezer and whip the frosting with an electric blender until it's thick and fluffy 
5. Frost over cooled cake (or the frosting will melt right into the cake)

Now, really interesting note here about the frosting.  It does not "fluff" up like what you're used to.  Also... be careful of leaving the frosting in the freezer for too long.  I left mine in there too long and ended up re-heating the frosting and placing it back in the freezer to try and "whip" it to a consistency I was happy with.  At the end, the frosting turned out to be a thin layer and not thick like how I would normally like my cakes to be.   Regardless, it was still good and everyone enjoyed the cake :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MRS. WOOD! I am so happy you enjoyed the cake!  Actually, I was more thankful that it turned out well and will probably try to make some dark chocolate chip scones in the near future :)