Let them eat cake! Since it was my birthday, and since home-made chocolate cake is about the yummiest thing ever, I decided to try to make a healthier one with no taste compromises.  There’s gluten in the sponge and icing sugar in the icing, because if it’s a birthday and you don’t have allergies, I’d be worried if you were worrying about these things. What I can promise is that it is so delicious.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cacao powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp teaspoon baking powder
pinch salt
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup plain or greek yogurt
2 eggs
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Icing

2 cups icing sugar

1 cup unsalted butter

2 tbs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.

2. Grease two round baking pans.

3. Sift together the flour, cacao powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl. 

4. In a separate bowl, mix together the maple syrup, yogurt, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and whisk vigorously until fully blended. Spread the batter into the prepared pan or pans. 

6. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean (around 20-30 minutes, depending on size of pans. Allow to cool.

Icing

While the cake is baking, you can make the icing