It's taken me years to figure my way past all the diet and eating fads and over the last while I have settled more into simply cutting out anything processed and eating as clean as possible. It stems from both my belief system and my exhaustion at trying to figure out what's going to make me fat or get me thin. I also give great thanks to my forties, because something really does change and a different type of not caring kicks in.
So now, I eat clean. In my world and terminology, I eat as close to goddess, ancient pagan woman as I possibly can. Nope, I'm not doing paleo and I'm not banting. I'm simply choosing what's been less processed, in a world where everything is processed in some way. I don't cut out anything and I love food and life too much to ever say no to ice cream, a glass of bubbly or a big slice of cake. What I have noticed, is the more I eat clean, the worse reaction I have a sugar binge or nibble at processed food.
I love cooking and am happy to label myself a kitchen witch (because I live for using fresh herbs and believe that cooking with intention and love impacts the people that eat it what I make. Just ask me for my "get well soon" chicken soup and you'll believe me 😉
Baking ... not so much!
My friends and family quiver when I say I'm going to attempt baking anything and I must admit that I was a nervous wreck while baking my sister's birthday cake last night. It was a slight disaster and after learning the importance of baking with wax paper, when you can't smear a baking tray in processed butter, the rest went well.
So here's the recipe for my clean eating coconut flour chocolate cake, with cream cheese and coconut frosting.
Cake Ingredients?(makes two 9 inch cakes)
1 cup coconut flour
3/4 cup pure cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp himalayan or sea salt
9 eggs
3/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 120 deg c
Line the pan with baking paper (I don't use butter or spray and cook and coconut oil is not non stick, so if you are less pedantic you can use that instead of the paper)
I also don't have any fancy mixer and do this all with a whisk, but you can throw it into a mixer.
Whisk the eggs until they are clearly beaten together then add the coconut oil, vanilla, maple syrup and salt. Mix again.
Make sure to sieve the dry ingredients and mix it in slowly. I do half the coconut flour, then the rest and the same for the cocoa.
Mix well and add half the ingredients into the baking pan and bake for 30 mins. Check that it's cooked through, but mine was perfect. If not, leave it for about another 5 mins. Don't cook it more because the coconut can get quite dry.
Frosting ingredients:
1 tub refrigerated cream cheese (some say dairy is not clean eating, but I can't do without my cream cheese and feta, which is the only dairy I eat. If you are eating clean then you can use a tofu based cream cheese)
1/2 tin of refrigerated coconut cream (pour off the water and just use the cream)
2 tbsp honey (you can use maple syrup)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup desicated coconut
1/4 bar of over 70% cocoa chocolate
Instructions:
In a mixer or with a hand blender, mix the cream cheese, coconut cream, honey and vanilla extract. Add coconut and finely grated chocolate and mix gently.
Refrigerate until cake is cool and ready to be iced.
The frosting is quite runny, but it settles and ices beautifully. Shave a little more of the chocolate on top and keep in the fridge until ready to serve!
For alternatives:
Add strong espresso to the cake mix/icing (coffee should not be instant for clean eating)
Add cocoa to the icing for chocolate icing
Soak sliced strawberries for a few hours and add to the icing
If you get any more creative, please let me know 😉
