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Along my journey to find better health I am always looking out for sweet treat recipes to try out.

I am acutely aware that I have this tiny person who is soon to embark on her own eating adventure and whilst I’m hopeful she won’t grow up on tons of processed crap I do want her to feel vaguely normal when it comes to things like having a cake for her birthday.

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So I am doing my homework now trying to find recipes that taste as good as cakes made with standard ingredients such as white flour and white sugar, but contain more wholesome less bad ingredients such as coconut flour and honey or maple syrup for sweetness.

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I came across this recipe for a chocolate mud cake, and liked the sound of the ingredients that made it up. It contains coconut flour of which I have a packet that’s been sitting in my cupboard for nearly a year that I hadn’t yet tried out.

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This is my second baking of this cake and I’ve tweaked it a little to our tastes and I’m so pleased with the results. It’s a dense chocolate cake that I top with my new favourite frosting recipe made up of just three ingredients – coconut oil, maple syrup and cocoa powder.

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Today I baked the cake as a round and topped the frosting off with cocoa nibs which add a fantastic crunch to it.

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The first time I made the cake I did it as a big tray bake and cut it into squares – this is ideal for lunch boxes whereas the round cake looks more of a party piece.

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You can find the original recipe for this chocolate mud cake here along with the authors alternative frosting. Below you’ll find my tweaked version of this scrumptious cake along with how to make the frosting.

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The ingredients below make this single round cake which was baked in 20cm tin. You can double it up to make a huge tray bake. I’ve also linked some of the ingredients to online shops as they aren’t the sort of thing you’ll find in a bog standard supermarket.

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Chocolate Mud Cake

4 eggs
188g butter
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Frosting (recipe below)
Cocoa nibs for decorating

Preheat the oven to 180°C with no fan or 150°C with a fan.

Melt the butter over a gentle heat.

Crack the eggs into a large bowl and then sieve in the coconut flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Start to mix together, then add the honey and vanilla and mix well – it’s quite a stiff batter.

Stir in the melted butter in batches to ensure it gets well incorporated.

Grease and line a cake tin then spoon in the cake batter and spread it out. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

When it’s cool top with the frosting below and sprinkle over cocoa nibs.

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Chocolate Frosting

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup cocoa powder

Beat the coconut oil and maple syrup together until it’s smooth with no lumps.

If you have a little blender this works really well, if you have to do it by hand you might find that lumps remain in the coconut oil. If this happens put the bowl of coconut oil and maple syrup into a low oven for a minute or two, then try beating it again. Repeat this until it incorporates well.

Then carefully stir in the cocoa powder and then beat to create a silky frosting.

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