Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla Cake

Delicious, nutritious, flour-less and gluten-free, filling and very satisfying, this Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla cake is a hit in my family. So yes, you can eat your cake and feel good about it too. It can almost be meal on its own!

This cake was inspired by my 5 year old daughter who couldn’t decide if she wanted Chocolate, Strawberry or Vanilla cake – so she asked for all three. My only requirement was that it would be healthy. And so I married the two requirements and this cake was born. I hope your family will enjoy it too.

Below ingredients are for 9 inch diameter cake.

Ingredients

One Chocolate Layer. Double the ingredients for two layers

1 c. finely chopped walnuts
3 c. cooked chickpeas
1 Banana
12 Dates
1 Egg
5 tbs Coconut oil
1/4 c. Coconut flour
1/4 c. Carob powder*
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tbs. pure vanilla
6 tsp. maple syrup
1/2 c. mini dark chocolate/carob chips, or to taste
½ tsp. salt

Strawberry Layer

15 whole strawberries + 10 thinly sliced strawberries
2 tsp. chia seeds
4 dates
2 tsp. coconut oil, melted

Vanilla Icing**

3 c. Cashew nuts
3/4 c. fruit juice such as apple, grape or pomegranate. You can also use coconut water instead.
4 tbs. maple syrup
3 tsp. pure vanilla
4 tbs. lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
3 tsp. melted coconut oil

*If you don’t have carob powder, or prefer to use cacao, go ahead and use cacao with 1:1 ratio for carob powder. I have a certain take on cacao and have written about it here: https://mamaschronicles.com/chocolate-free-chocolate-recipe/ If you are making this cake for small children and will use cacao, be mindful that cacao has caffeine and your children might bounce off the walls after eating this.

**Note, in the picture I only put the icing on top of the cake. After tasting the cake I realized that more icing all the around the cake would have been even better! Its creaminess balances the brownie-like chocolate layers so well. Hence, I increased the icing ingredients and invite you to add more icing on the cake edges as well.

Instructions

Chocolate Layers

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. In a blender or food processor, blend all the ingredients except nuts, chocolate/carob chips and coconut flour.
3. Once blended, fold in nuts, chocolate/carob chips and coconut flour. Mix well with a spoon and let sit for a few minutes.
4. Line two round 9-inch baking trays with parchment paper and spread/tap the mixture into a uniform shape. One layer should be about 2 cm (or a bit under 1 inch) thickness. If you only have one baking tray then you would have to repeat this and next step for the second layer.
5. Bake for about 20 mins, or until the toothpick comes out dry.
6. Let cool down. You might want to run a knife near the edges to separate the cake from the baking tray before taking it out.

Strawberry Layer

1. Blend 15 strawberries, dates and coconut oil in a blender until smooth.
2. Transfer into a container and add chia seeds. Mix well with a spoon and let sit for at least two hours. The mixture will turn into a strawberry “jam”.
3. The other 10 thinly sliced strawberries are reserved to go between the chocolate layers, underneath this strawberry jam and on top of the cake.

Vanilla Icing

1. Soak cashew nuts in water for 2 hours.
2. Drain and rise the cashews well.
3. Combine all the icing ingredients in a blender until smooth. You might want to add a bit more juice for smoother icing.

Putting it all together

1. Place one chocolate layer on a plate.
2. Place the thinly cut strawberry slices all over the chocolate layer, in one layer. Pour the Strawberry Jam mixture on top.
3. Place the second chocolate layer on top.
4. Spread the vanilla icing on top of the cake and on the sides if desired, covering the entire cake.
5. Decorate the cake with more strawberry slices and chocolate***.

*** You can put shredded chocolate on top or make fun chocolate shapes if you have a silicone mould as such. I have silicone moulds with flowers, hearts, animals etc, so I melted some chocolate in a pot and poured the melted chocolate into the moulds. Then I froze them for about 15 minutes and voila. Fun, chocolate shapes are made! I will post separate instructions on this soon.

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