Recipe – Reduced Guilt Blueberry Chocolate Coconut Birthday Cake

Booker turned 2 on March 22nd! He’s 2 for 2 on birthdays being in quarantine, so we wanted to make this a special one. I asked him what ingredients he wanted in his cake, and he said that he wanted a blueberry chocolate coconut birthday cake. Sounds like a sophisticated palate to me!

Booker is also really into Blue’s Clues at the moment, so we wanted to decorate the top with a blue paw print (shoutout to Minhan for handling the paw decoration). It was also the first birthday for him as a big brother!

The Approach

I knew I wanted this to be a decadent cake, but I didn’t want Booker to be bouncing off the walls hopped up on sugar. Plus, I wanted versatility with the sponge recipe, in case I wanted to adapt it for other flavors. So I did a bunch of calculations for substitutions, keeping in mind the ratio of wet to dry ingredients as well as the chemical reactions between the ingredients. For the frosting, I used Trader Joe’s chocolate hummus diluted with a bit of unsweetened almond milk to make it spreadable. As an experiment, I also tried mixing the hummus with buttercream, just for myself and Minhan – it was delicious as well!

I opted for 100% cacao chocolate chips, as well as Dutch-processed cocoa powder to give it a deep chocolate flavor without the sugar. To balance out the bitterness of the cacao, I added blueberries and untoasted coconut flakes, along with vanilla extract and some lemon zest. All of that with some toasted coconut flakes on the outside, and it was a great alternative to a super sweet cake, without losing much sweetness! Since it’s reduced guilt, we had no problem polishing off the cake in two days.

For the decoration, Minhan cut out a pattern in parchment paper, then sprinkled blue sprinkles on top to get the classic Blue’s Clues paw print!

Reduced Guilt Blueberry Chocolate Coconut Birthday Cake

And here it is in all its glory:

Materials (makes 2-tiered 6″ cake):

• 150g all purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 lemon/lime zest
• 10g flaked coconut + more for decoration
• 50g blueberries
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 30g Dutch-processed cocoa
• 50g 100% cacao chocolate chips
• 100g maple syrup
• 100g light sour cream
• 100g extra virgin olive oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Materials (frosting):

• Option 1: TJ’s chocolate hummus + buttercream frosting (1:1)
• Option 2: TJ’s chocolate hummus + plant-based milk to thin

Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. In a bowl, mix together all purpose flour, baking soda, salt, lemon/lime zest, and flaked coconut. Add blueberries to dust, then remove them. Dusting the blueberries will help them not sink during the baking process later.
3. In a mixing bowl, add boiling water, Dutch-processed cocoa, and chocolate chips and mix until smooth.
4. Add maple syrup, sour cream, olive oil, eggs, and vanilla extract to the mixing bowl and mix until smooth.
5. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl and mix until it’s just smooth. Fold in the dusted blueberries.
6. Pour out ~410g of the batter in each of two 6″ springform pans lined with silicon mats. Shake to level.
7. Bake 35-40min until a toothpick/chopstick comes out clean.
8. Toast the flaked coconut for decoration for ~5min or until light brown.
9. Make the frosting by whisking or mixing the ingredients with a fork.
10. After the sponges have cooled, remove from pans and cool completely on a rack. Cut the tops to make them flat, add frosting, stack the sponges, then decorate the sides and top with frosting and toasted coconut.

Happy Birthday, Booker!