Have Your Chocolate Cake and Eat it Too!

It's no secret that I love Dr. Joel Furhman's book, Eat To Live.  He advocates what he calls a nutritarian way of eating, in other words, eating the foods that have the most nutrients per calorie. What this means is basing your diet on plant foods: vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds.  A little meat once in a while is ok, but if your goal is being as healthy as you can possibly be, Dr. Fuhrman recommends avoiding animal products altogether.

Avoiding animal products presents a problem to those who love to bake, and to those who love to eat what is baked!  The following recipe solves that problem.

I haven't made this cake yet, but I assure you it is in my future, and I've heard some amazing reviews of it!

Ingredients

• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 2/3 cup chickpea flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tsp baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups pitted dates, divided
• 1 cup pineapple chunks, drained
• 1 banana, peeled
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into pieces
• 1 cup shredded beets
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup shredded zucchini

• 4 tbsp natural nonalkalized cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup dried currants
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup raw macadamia nuts or raw cashews
• 1 cup vanilla soy, hemp or almond milk
• 1/2 cup dates, pitted
• 1/3 cup Brazil nuts or hazelnuts
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tsp alcohol-free vanilla flavor

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flours, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside. In blender or food processor, puree 3 cups dates with the pineapple, banana and apple.

Slice remaining 1/2 cup dates into 1/2-inch-thick pieces. In a large bowl, mix sliced dates, beets, carrots, zucchini, cocoa powder, currants, walnuts, water, vanilla and flour mixture.

Add the fruit puree and mix well. Spread mixture in a 9.5-x-13.5-inch nonstick baking pan. Bake for one hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Or to make individual servings, bake in muffin tins lined with paper liners. Reduce cooking time to 20-25 minutes.

For the chocolate-nut icing, combine the remaining ingredients in a high-powered blender until smooth and creamy. Place a dollop over warm cake and serve or spread on cooled cake.