Mother Love

It’s no secret that I love chocolate.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE CHOCOLATE.

I don’t even consider it a vice, because of all the endless studies showing how good chocolate is for pretty much everything in your body (i love people that do those studies). I always have several bars of dark chocolate in the pantry and usually one in my purse, and often find myself breaking off a square or two after a meal. It’s always the perfect ending! Every once in a while, I get a caramel filled bar or one with nuts or other add-ins, but generally just a plain salted chocolate is where it’s at for me.

About a year ago, a sweet friend of mine sent me a collection of recipes that her daughter had put together of some good and nutritious recipes. One of the recipes was for a black bean chocolate cake, and it immediately had me intrigued. This friend and I decided to have a lunch together and each make a few recipes from this collection to try. It was the funnest thing and each of them were a hit, but the cake, well, took the cake (bad joke i know). It was sweet, but not too sweet, and didn’t leave the heavy-ugh feeling in your stomach afterwards. Plus, with a base made of beans, it was high in protein and made you feel like you literally having your cake and eating it too (another bad joke). I took a piece home to share with Ben after the lunch, and he couldn’t stop raving about it. He says it’s literally now his favorite dessert, and I’m always happy to whip it up for him (ok, and for me….maybe mostly for me, hehe).

I like to top the cake with a coconut whipped cream made from coconut cream, but you could easily just use regular whipping cream or any other favorite cake frosting you like. I just like the slight coconutty flavor from the coconut cream, but it’s definitely not going to affect the yumminess of the this cake if you choose to use something else!

Black Bean Chocolate Cake

1 – 15 oz. can black beans

5 large eggs

1 T. vanilla

1/2 tsp. salt

6 T. butter, room temperature

1/2 cup + 2 T. honey or maple syrup

6 T. cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. coffee grounds, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9″ cake pan and line with parchment paper.

Drain and rinse the beans in a colander. Place beans, three eggs, vanilla, and salt into blender, and blend well until there are no lumps.

Whisk together cocoa powder, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a mixer, cream together butter and honey until light and fluffy. Mix in the two remaining eggs one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. Beat in the bean mixture to the batter for one minute, and then stir in the cocoa powder mixture. Beat batter on high for one minute, until smooth.

Pour into your prepared pan and lightly rap on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until cake top springs back when touched or toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes, then flip out onto a cooking rack. Allow the cake to reach room temperature, then cover in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator. This cake tastes better when you allow it to sit in the fridge overnight.

Top the cake with your favorite cake frosting or whipped cream.

Enjoy!

What about you: what is your absolute favorite dessert?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

I am absolutely not an interior decorator at all.

It is almost virtually impossible for me to envision how something will look until it’s actually in place, and picking out paint color for a room or project is one of my most feared tasks. We’ve literally changed the color in our master bedroom three times because I just couldn’t get it right. I’ve learned I have to stick to the basics and simplest color palettes (which means whites whites whites), or else it just totally freaks me out and I don’t know what to do. I admire people who can take patterns and colors and make it look amazing…but I’ve not been gifted that ability at all.

This baby room was actually really fun for me though…I guess because I’ve now learned more what works for me and what doesn’t. It’s full of white and neutrals, which is really all I know how to use. The room actually came together like I envisioned, and that never happens! Fun surprise.

Ben actually did most of the hard work…he painted the crib and the changing table and the wall, plus he built me shelves and hung a birch branch to use as a closet rod. I had originally envisioned a dark wood branch for the hanging branch above the clothing shelves, but he had the idea to use birch wood, which went so much more perfectly with the soft neutral theme of the room. He’s the best!

We were able to put together the whole nursery very inexpensively, which is always a fun challenge to me. We found the crib on Craigslist for fifty dollars and a coat of paint made it like new. Some friends of ours gave us their changing table they were no longer using, and more paint made that like new too. The shelves were made from wood we scavenged from an old barn, and the shelf brackets were only a few dollars each at Lowe’s. We did have to paint those black since they only came in white, which wasn’t what I was looking for. The glider was gifted to us, as was the little Moses basket (which was something i wanted so badly…and here my mom-in-law had one in storage that came all the way from ireland! such a fun gift). We bought the rug new, and the night stand was on clearance at TJ Maxx. I’ve learned that you can often create the style you want if you can be creative with what you have on hand and do simple transformations to make it what you want.

Now that the nursery is done and the little clothes are washed and the diapers stacked, it’s just the waiting left. We are just ready to fill that room with snuggles and kisses and poopy diapers and sleepy smiles and sweet baby smells. This little baby has already filled our hearts to overflowing, and it’s about time for him or her to fill our home and arms and this little room. We can’t wait!

What about you: do you enjoy interior design? What styles work for you?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!