After the vanilla cupcakes were all gone, I was feeling empty inside. Well, not totally empty—just a little snackish. You know when you want something sweet but not anything really healthy. And since I still had my bag of coconut flour, I thought why not try some chocolate cupcakes?

These are just as good as the vanilla ones if you ask me. They do have a stronger taste of coconut, but I think it helps since the cocoa powder needs a fatty flavor to give it some chocolaty richness.

Paleo Chocolate Cupcakes

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 35 minutes

Ingredients(Makes a dozen cupcakes):

• 1/2 cup +2 Tablespoons coconut flour
• 4 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup cane or palm sugar
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line 12 cupcake holders with paper liners.
2. Mix together the coconut flour, eggs, egg whites, cocoa powder, sugar, coconut milk, baking soda, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.
3. Slowly add just enough water so that the batter is slightly runny and easy to mix by hand without exerting too much effort.
4. Scoop the batter evenly into the cupcake liners. Hit the pan against the counter a few times to even the batter and knock out any air bubbles.
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the tops are firm to the touch.

If you like these cupcakes, you might like my paleo vanilla cupcake recipe.

This recipe comes almost 4 months in the making. I needed a lot of time and a big celebration to make it for so New Years fit the bill. It’s also my submission for the Scharffen Berger elevated classic recipe contest.

The point of the contest is to take a classic dessert and elevate it with chocolate. My favorite chocolate dessert has always been flourless chocolate cake, which has been made in my family for years with the same recipe. It’s certainly a good recipe, but not the best.

To elevate it, I added a raspberry fudge sauce and topped the whole thing with a coconut milk mousse, all made with Scharffen Berger chocolate. I love the combination of the dense cake with the airy mousse and the tartness of the raspberries between the two sweet layers. Technically it was probably one of the hardest desserts I’ve made; I’ve never successfully separated and tempered yolks before now. Needless to say I was very happy on New Years Eve when the cake turned out as well as I planned.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Raspberry Fudge Sauce and Coconut Milk Chocolate Mousse

For the cake:

• 4oz room temperature butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 medium room temperature eggs
• 1 9.7oz 70% Scharffen Berger baking chocolate

For the sauce:

• 8oz raspberries
• 2oz 62% Scharffen Berger baking chocolate
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 Tablespoons Scharffen Berger unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 Tablespoons liquid sweetener

For the mousse:

• 3/4 cup coconut cream*
• 1/4 coconut water*
• 6oz 62% Scharffen Berger chocolate
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 egg whites
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar

*To get coconut cream, leave a can of coconut milk undisturbed for a week or so. When you open it, the water should have separated from the thicker part, the cream. Just be careful not to mix the two together and you should be able to scrape the cream off the top easily.

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar, adding in eggs one at a time until all of them are incorporated. The batter should be smooth and ribbony.
3. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave.
4. Slowly temper the melted chocolate into the batter until it’s completely mixed in.
5. Grease a 9-inch cake pan and pour the batter in.
6. Bake for 40 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
7. Remove the cake and let it sit undisturbed until it cools to room temperature. It should deflate as it cools. Don’t worry if the top cracks since it will get covered eventually.
8. While the cake cools, make the sauce by bringing all of the ingredients together to a boil in a small sauce pot.
9. Mix the contents of the pot until the chocolate has melted and the sauce is uniform in color.
10. Pour the sauce over the cake. Let it cool completely and then refrigerate to chill.
11. While the sauce sets, make the mousse by bringing to a light boil the coconut cream and water in a sauce pot. Chop the chocolate and add it in, mixing off of the heat until the chocolate has melted.
12. Beat together the 3 egg yolks. Temper them by adding a little of the chocolate coconut mixture in as you beat. Once the yolks have been tempered you can mix them into the pot along with the salt. Keep the pot off of the heat stirring occasionally to prevent fit rom getting a film.
13. Beat the egg whites while sifting in the powdered sugar until light peaks form like you’re making a meringue.
14. Carefully fold the egg whites and chocolate coconut mixture together in a large bowl until it’s all mixed. Be careful not to over-mix the mousse and deflate the egg whites; fold just enough until it’s all the same color.
15. Put the mousse into the refrigerator until it’s set, about 3-4 hours.
16. Once the mousse has set, carefully scoop it on top of the cake. Spread it out into one layer as if it were a frosting. Using a piece of saran wrap to push down for a flat surface is an easy way to do this.
17. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve. Remove from the refrigerator for about 15 minutes before cutting and eating.

It was a lot of work but completely worth it. Everybody loved the cake. And I think the mousse would be a great and impressive dessert to make on its own for another occasion.

Happy New Year! I wanted to get the year off to a sweet start, so here’s the dessert I made for Christmas, which just happened to turn out to be one of my favorite desserts ever.

As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I wanted to make it. I love things that are salty and sweet and pecans are never a bad thing either; add chocolate and you have to have a winning dessert.

I actually think it’s easier to make raw tortes and pies than cooked ones; you don’t have to worry about cutting cold butter into the crust or cooking them in a water bath. This recipe comes together extremely quickly and is full of flavor.

I used maple syrup because I had plenty on hand. To make this fully raw, use agave nectar or raw honey.

Raw Salted Caramel Chocolate Pecan Torte

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 0 minutes

Ingredients(Makes 1 torte):

For the crust:

• 6oz(about 1 1/2 cups) dates
• 6oz(1 1/2 cups) pecans

For the caramel:

• 2oz dates
• 6 Tablespoons maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

For the filling:

• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/2 cup maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
• Sea salt and pecans for garnish

Method:

1. To make the crust, pulse the dates and pecans in a food processor until it forms a dough ball. If after a while the dough hasn’t come together, add water by the tablespoon slowly until it does.
2. Grease a 9-inch pan lightly with coconut oil. Press the dough into the pan and spread it out evenly into a pie crust shape, raising it at the side. Make sure there are no holes in the bottom.
3. Make the caramel by blending together the maple syrup and dates in a food processor until smooth and golden in color. Once it’s blended into a sauce, add in the sea salt and mix gently.
4. Pour the caramel in a thin layer on top of the bottom of the crust, spreading it out evenly.
5. To make the filling, blend the melted coconut oil, cocoa powder, and maple syrup in a food processor until it’s uniformly mixed.
6. Carefully cover the caramel layer with the chocolate layer. For me it was easiest to add a little bit of topping all around the pie and lightly blending the top together with a soft spatula.
7. Garnish the top with pecans and sea salt if desired.
8. Refrigerate your torte until the filling sets. Remove it from the refrigerator about 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. Personally I liked this when it was still slightly chilled but you can also eat it at room temperature.

I would have liked to have gotten better pictures of this but it was too good not to just dig into. It may not be one of the prettiest desserts, but it’s by far one of the tastiest I’ve made in a long time. I can’t wait to make this again.