Its My Party, I'll Eat Beets If I Want To. . . Chocolate Cake and Sunflower Seed Butter Frosting

Hello all! Well, in honor of my happy birthday (as B calls it), I had to share the cake I made for B and I. I must say, my husband did his research and found a beautiful ice cream cake for him and I that is safe for my elim diet, though not safe for B. Good job, N! It was delish!!!

As for my homemade creation. . . . I am still nursing (at 29 months as of today! They need a new classification for those who nurse this long-- steel nipples perhaps? Haha) and since December, I have had to eliminate everything that B has failed since that time because she has started reacting to ALL new fails via my milk. Boo! So I have recently lost lemon, cinnamon and all nuts and peanuts in the last few months, in addition to the other foods I am eliminating. But in bdays past, I always loved PB/chocolate cakes or lemon cakes-- both are big no-nos this year. So I thought I would make something safe for me but also safe for B! Here is what we got. . .

Note the finger prints in the frosting to the left. I had these sitting on the side board while I cooked dinner and B kept walking by and saying, "Mmmmm, a little taste of frosting. . ." When I checked on the cupcakes, I had to laugh-- she was stealing bites of frosting off the cupcakes! She has NEVER done this before! I call this success!!!

Ok-- the basics. This recipe is free of the big 8 allergens. It is free of all FPIES common triggers, can be corn free (if you use the HAIN baking powder and non-iodized salt), it is vegan, and it gives you some fruits AND veggies in your dessert serving!!! It works best as cupcakes but does hold up well enough to be made into a  big cake. It is super moist but maintains its shape beautifully. It does take awhile to bake do to the low temp. Here is the recipe!!!

Happy Birthday Mama Safe Cake
1/2 cup Sorghum flour
1/2 cup Quinoa flakes
2 Tbsp Millet flour
3 Tbsp arrowroot starch (or other starch)
1/2 cup baking cocoa (I used Hershey's)
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

1 cup pureed beets-- add water as pureeing until the consistency of apple sauce
1 cup pureed pears-- do not add liquid. Finely diced fruit is fine as well-- I would suggest pineapple, banana or apples
1/2 cup coconut or hemp milk
1/4 cup melted spectrum palm oil shortening (or allergy safe "butter" sub--- no oil here as it must coagulate)
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar or sugar sub
1 tsp vanilla (opt)

Preheat your oven to 325 F and prepare your cake pan-- grease and flour! If using cupcakes, simply use liners or silicone cupcake molds.

Puree beets to desired consistency and pour 1 cup (the puree should measure one cup, not the cooked, chopped beets) into a medium bowl. Fold in 1 cup of pear puree. Once well blended, add melted shortening, coconut milk, and vanilla, blending well. Time to throw in the sugar!!! Blend well as you gradually add in the sugar. Set bowl aside.

In a separate large bowl, mix flours, starch, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. You can play around with the types of flours used and would probably be ok using just one kind of flour and one kind of starch. I personally like this combo if you have these available to you! Remember, if making the corn free version of this recipe, use HAIN baking powder or a homemade version. Once all ingredients are well-blended, gradually fold in the wet ingredient mixture, just until well blended. Lumps are good!!!

Pour mixture into prepared pans. Bake in a 325 F oven for 30-40 minutes (I set my timer for 20 minutes, then 10minutes, then 10 minutes, and so on, until everything set up) or until the top of the cake is firm and you can push on the center without it puckering in.

Remove from oven and allow cake to cool in pan on stove top for 10 minutes or so. Remove cake from pan and allow to fully cool on intended serving plate. Once cool, frost!!!! (see below!!)

Sunflower Seed Butter Frosting
2-4 cups powdered sugar (I start with 2 and then add more as needed)***
3 Tbsp Spectrum Palm Shortening (or coconut manna or shortening/butter of choice)
2-4 Tbsp coconut milk or other milk (Again, I start small and add as needed)
1-2 Tbsp sunflower seed butter (you could also use homemade hemp seed butter, found at the bottom of the page here (last recipe).
1 tsp vanilla

Cream the shortening and sugar together. Slowly add in vanilla and then milk while blending. Once smooth, add in the sunflower seed butter (be sure to stir your sunflower seed butter well-- for this recipe, you do not want your sunflower seed butter to be too oily) and blend well. Add additional powdered sugar if needed until desired consistency is met. Attempt to restrain self from eating before frosting the cake, although really, making a second batch wouldn't be such an awful thing. Makes approximately 1 cup of frosting. I am currently freezing the leftovers. I will let you know how that goes-- how I see it is we either end up with frosting for another day or a super delicious freezer fudge. Either way, we win!

*** For corn free, there are powdered sugars that are potato based and some are tapioca based. To make your own, check this out using your starch of choice rather than corn starch.

So technically, this recipe could be done with 6-7 safe foods, depending on the variety you wanted to have with the flours.

Ok, enjoy! I hold no responsibility for those of you unable to stop eating this frosting or frosting/cake combo. I froze mine as soon as possible to avoid the potential for consuming large amounts of this treat!