Last Updated on March 23, 2016 by Patricia Carter
Summary: Â I subscribe to the Julia Child philosophy of
“I’d rather eat an occasional little piece of the real thing than a giant bowl of the imitation!”
November… two Scorpios living under the same roof, celebrate lit candles on this So Simple Chocolate Birthday Cake. Â FODMAP friendly, and within limits of UMass modified SCD named IBD-AID. Â This coconut flour and maple syrup based seven ingredient cake was actually preferred in its taste trial test compared to the traditional iced cookie cake. Â That is reason enough to not relegate this dessert to a once a year show, rather keep it in your families rotation. Â We certainly do.
It’s size? Small? Yes, see… it is so nutrient dense and satiating that a little goes a far way.
So Simple Birthday Chocolate Cake and healing diets
Only seven ingredients to evaluate. Â The verdict: legal for UMass version of SCD and FODMAPs, but not legal for SCD/GAPS:
- The deal breaker for SCD/GAPS is the cacao. Â SCD/GAPS would just substitute honey for maple syrup.
- But the UMass version of SCD, called IBD-AID, would permit the ingredients of this cake providing sugar-free dairy-free chocolate shavings are substituted for the dark chocolate chips.
- Â FODMAPs would permit this recipe (recognizing small sizes are consumed) providing:
- The sweetener used is maple syrup (honey is not permitted due to excess fructose) and
- Dark chocolate shavings (sugar-free and diary-free) are substituted for the morsels. Cocoa and dark chocolate shaving are low FODMAP.  Avoid carob chocolate which is high in oligos (fructans).Â
- The small serving size is important since FODMAPs avoids large serves of chocolate. Chocolate is high in fat, and when consumed in excess, can affect gut motility and may trigger symptoms. –Monash University – Easter special: What is the FODMAP content of chocolate?
- Lastly, what about AIP?  Sorry, but this recipe would not pass muster due to both the sweetener and the cacao.
So Simple Chocolate Birthday Cake
Notes
Healing diets and this recipe:
This recipe will never be SCD legal due to cocoa and morsels, but it is within the modified SCD diet UMass uses that is called IBD-AID which permits pure maple syrup providing instead of the morsels, substitute sugar-free and dairy-free chocolate shavings.
Ditto for the FODMAP friendly version.
Lastly, it will never be AIP due to the sweetener and cacao.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut flour
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (I use Penzeys Natural High Fat Cocoa)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 3 large pastured eggs
- 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
- Enjoy Life 69% Cacao Dark Chocolate Morsels (For FODMAP and UMass IBD-AID, substitute sugar-free dairy-free chocolate shavings)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325F convection oven. Conventional ovens typically add 25F.
- Combine the dry ingredients.
- Add the wet ingredients and using a mixer, blend well. Allow to rest a few minutes. Blend a second time.
- Line a 6-1/2 inch square baking dish (2-1/2 to 3 inches high) with unbleached parchment paper.
- Pour the batter into the mold.
- Top with chocolate chips.
- Bake for 20 minutes until the toothpick in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool ~10 minutes; holding onto to the corners of the parchment paper, place the cake on a cooling rack. Allow to cool. Enjoy!
Hoping you give this recipe a try and… let the celebrations begin!
Last updated: March 23, 2016 at 4:32 am for SEO optimization.
In health through awareness,
Here is another version, Chocolate Mud Cake, http://kehoeskitchen.com/2013/08/28/best-ever-chocolate-mud-cake/#.W8cejntKiM8:
Ingredients
Cake
8 eggs (they don’t need to be at room temperature)
375g* (13.2 oz) butter, lard or coconut oil for dairy free, melted
1 cup coconut flour
1/2 cup cacao powder
1 cup honey
2 tsp bi-carb soda
2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste (or 2 tbsp vanilla powder)
Frosting
200g (5.5 oz) virgin coconut oil
200g (5.5 oz) ripe cold avocado (1 large) (or substitute banana, butter or soaked cashews)
3 tbsp cacao powder
1/3 cup raw honey
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C)
2. Crack eggs in large mixing bowl.
3. Add dry ingreds; then add honey. Whisk well to combine.
4. Add melted butter; whisk again.
5. Pour into parchment paper lined baking dish. Bake in (no fan oven) for 35 to 40 min. (If you cannot turn the fan off, just reduce temp to around 160C, and it should only take about 20-30 minutes.)
6. For frosting: Blend all ingredients till smooth. Spread over cooled cake. Set in fridge to give coconut oil a butter frosting consistency.
7. To serve: allow cake to come to room temp for 30 to 45 min.
*Amount reduced from 500g due to some people complaining that it’s too oily when hot. If the cake is not dense enough for you, increase the butter/oil to suit. Remember butter, coconut oil and lard all solidify on cooling to give the dense mud texture without soy lecithin, gums etc found in the chocolate of other mud cakes.
This ariticle, http://products.mercola.com/coconut-flour/, is reprinted from the book, “Cooking with Coconut Flour: A Delicious Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat” by Bruce Fife, ND. Excerpts are:
Food contains two types of carbohydrate: digestible and non-digestible. Digestible carbohydrate consists of starch and sugar and provides calories. Non-digestible carbohydrate is the fiber and provides NO calories. Coconut meat is composed primarily of non-digestible fiber with a beneficial amount of water and smart oil.
Coconut flour is unlike any other consisting of 14% coconut oil and 58% dietary fiber! The remaining 28% consists of water, protein, and carbohydrate.
Studies have shown that an additional 14 grams of fiber daily (the amount in about ¼ cup of coconut flour) is associated with a 10% decrease in calorie intake.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, only 24% of the carbohydrate in oat bran is composed of fiber. Soybeans contain only 29% fiber, and wheat bran is 42% fiber.
The chocolate cake recipe on this is:
½ cup coconut oil
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup coconut milk
9 eggs
1 ½ cups Stevia Blend
¾ teaspoon Himalayan salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup sifted coconut flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
Melt coconut oil; add cocoa and coconut milk.
In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, stevia blend, salt, and vanilla.
Stir in cocoa mixture.
Combine coconut flour with baking powder and whisk into batter until there are no lumps.
Pour batter into greased 8x8x2 or 9x9x2-inch pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until knife inserted into center comes out clean.
any studies or anecdotal evidence comparing U Mass IDB-AID versus traditional SCD?
We are doing SCD but it is so hard!
Hi. Unfortunately I have no data to offer on diet comparisons going head to head. UMass was going to look at microbiome on IBD-AID, but I’ve not yet seen such published. The microbiome data to date is derived eating SCD.
I do however have many insights into adding in UMass IBD-AID foods to an otherwise strict SCD. Those would include having a firm understanding of current microbiome functional health status and it’s resiliency on strict SCD, length of time on SCD, and achievement of goals on SCD such as symptom resolution/remission and medication reduction/elimination.
For adding in non-SCD UMass IBD-AID foods, consider: is remission well established, and are a vast amount of SCD foods tolerable including the advanced foods. If yes, seems adding in IBD-AID foods could be considered. It’s where SCD is not achieving complete benefit that I’d wonder why. In answering that, I would think about the FODMAPs diet cross over tenets and honor that some FODMAPs such as legumes can have limited tolerance. Similar intolerance for honey could be due to its high FODMAP component of excess fructose. But maple syrup, an IBD-AID food, is low FODMAP. It may be worth honoring FODMAP type limitations because it seems many using SCD have IBS in addition to the health issue that brought them to SCD. FODMAP science supports this diet for over 75% IBS management. So if honey is a problem on SCD, the low FODMAP IBD-AID sweetener maple syrup may be a good food swap. What IBD-AID foods are you thinking about adding in?
Perhaps target IBD-AID foods that help nudge the microbiome into a more healthy status. Some foods that support microbiome due to fiber, antioxidants, and carotenoids, if tolerated, would be sweet potatoes, cocoa, or perhaps even maple syrup if high FODMAP honey is an issue. Do these help to make adherence simpler? The gluten-free oats… my understanding is that those are cooked in a soup or stew for long periods of time; such helped a patient that initially could not tolerate many of the IBD-AID foods. Since others tolerated these oats well UMass added oats into the IBD-AID foods. From the standpoint of understanding how to properly prepare oats using an acid medium to reduce anti-nutrients, I suppose they would not be something I’d target first for introduction to a strict SCD person. But perhaps the UMass soup contained an acid medium that neutralized the anti-nutrients sufficiently.
I suppose, if you are going to introduce UMass foods, have a well thought out plan of what you intend to introduce and target building up and supporting the microbiome. Slowly introduce such, one item at a time, honoring FODMAP constraints on how much and how often such is tolerated.
The power of both diets to move very ill microbiomes to a healthy status is undeniable given that meds can be reduced if not eliminated. It was great that F.prausnitzii increased and that disease indices improved on SCD. Also interesting that SCD gut diversity increase was maintained and did not return to baseline composition during the washout period. Please keep me posted on your thoughts and findings.
Thanks for sharing…if it’s chocolate it’s got to be good right? Seriously though, I will be checking this out. Thanks for sharing all the information too.
You are welcome!