One of our very favorite holidays is coming up next week! We love Valentine’s Day at our house…the giving of Valentine’s cards, the little heart shaped boxes of chocolate, our traditional Red & White dinner (Belgian waffles with strawberry sauce!) It’s even more fun now that two of our three kids have school parties to help with…if I could I would insert all the heart-eye emojis right here!
I have yet to find a go-to Valentine’s Day dessert that is rich and decadent enough for the grown-ups while still appealing to the younger crowd. Dark chocolate would be my first choice for any dessert, but most of our kids won’t eat it. (Obviously they didn’t get my dessert DNA.) So we often go with something like sugar cookies or revert to our usual bowl of ice-cream.
This year I wanted to finally find that perfect balance of rich chocolate and kid-friendly.
I think I got it! 🙂
The secret ingredient? Avocados.
Don’t freak out!! Avacado is an amazing (and vegan) substitute for butter or shortening. It gives so much creamy texture to chocolate pudding and smoothies that I decided to give it a shot in traditional Devil’s Food Cake. It totally worked and this cake is definitely going to be made frequently over here!
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 ripe avocado
- 1 3/4 cup cane sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 1 1/3 cups cold water
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and lightly flour two 9 inch cake pans and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set dry ingredients to the side for later.
- In a large mixing bowl beat ripe avocado with an electric mixer until creamy. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until combined completely. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each egg is added. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the water into the avocado mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Pour batter evenly into two 9 inch cake pans.
- Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.
- Frost when cakes are completely cooled and garnish as desired.
Making a cake from scratch takes only a few minutes longer than working from a boxed mix, but the taste is amazing and totally worth the extra bit of effort! This cake is easily adapted for any special occasion, but for Valentine’s Day have fun decorating it with your kids using homemade frosting tinted pink, sliced strawberries or fresh raspberries, or even a thick chocolate icing with dark chocolate curls! The possibilities are endless 😉
Do you have any fun Valentine’s Day traditions?