Chocolate Layer Cake with Peanut Butter Banana Frosting

It's Sunday, tomorrows Monday, and do you know what will make your Monday like a billion times better?  This cake.

Early last week I got back from vacation.  It was a great break from normal life, and I loved lounging around outside without a care in the world.  The only problem was that at the place we were vacationing, it was significantly harder to bake, and even harder than that to take decent pictures.  I did bake one thing during the trip, but by the time we arrived home, I was itching to get back in the kitchen.

Naturally, the first thing I made had to be spectacular.

And what's more spectacular than a gorgeous Chocolate Layer Cake?  Not much, I can tell you that.

I took my Chocolate Beet Cake recipe, and modified it so that it didn't use beets. I added in some banana as well.  Once that was baking I made a quick frosting out of tofu, banana, and peanut butter.  Gah, so good!

If you decide to make this, which you totally should, I can guarantee that you won't be able to tell at all that this cake is healthy.  Nope, it looks and tastes like anything from a bakery, without the butter, without the oil, and without the multiple cups of sugar.

Yay!  How's that for a great start to the day?

Chocolate Layer Cake with Peanut Butter Banana Frosting
For Cake:

• 1 1/4 cup spelt flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup arrowroot starch/flour (or cornstarch)
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt (don't skip)
• 1 3/4 cup applesauce
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup egg whites
• 2/3 cup date paste
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 1/2 banana, mashed
• 1 tsp vanilla

For Frosting:

• 1 package shelf stable tofu (can buy ar trader joes or online as Mori-nu tofu)
• 2 large bananas
• 2 tbsp salted peanut butter (if you don't use salted, add some salt)
• 1 tsp vanilla

For Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease 2 8-in circle pans, and line a muffin tin with 3-5 cupcake liners.
2. Combine dry ingredients (flour, cocoa, arrowroot, baking powder and soda, cinnamon and salt) in a large bowl.
3. In another bowl, mix together remaining ingredients for cake.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until a smooth batter forms.
4. Fill both greased 8-in circle pans a little less than 3/4 full with batter.  Distribute the extra batter betweem prepared cupcake liners for some extra cupcakes
5. Bake in preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean.  The cupcakes may require a bit less baking time.
6. Remove cakes from oven and let cool in pan completely.

For Frosting + Preparing Cake:

1. Place tofu, bananas, peanut butter, and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor.  Blend until completely smooth, with no banana or tofu clumps remaining.  It may look thin, but thats ok as the frosting will firm up once it's on the cake.
2. Prepare serving dish for cake (keep in mind that the cake must be stored in the fridge).  Once (8-in) cakes have cooled completely, flip one of them onto the prepared serving dish.  Spread a layer of frosting on top.
3. Carefuly flip the other cake out of the pan and on top of the layer of frosting.  Use remaining frosting to cover the outside of the cake.  Again, it may seem thin, but it will firm up in the fridge.
4. Place cake in fridge until serving time.  When it's time to serve, cut into 8-10 pieces and garnish with chocolate chips or chunks.  Extra cupcakes can be eaten with another frosting of choice (I don't reccommend eating them plain, because it won't be quite sweet enough without a frosting)
5. Store leftovers in fridge.

Revisited Recipe of the Day:

Chocolate Beet Layer Cake - another great recipe for chocolate cake!