{Recipe} Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake

I made this cake for College Girl's party. 

  It's definitely a healthier spin on flourless chocolate cake and contains no dairy, eggs or refined sugar. It also has a sneaky secret ingredient; black beans!

I used this recipe but tripled the ingredients for an 8-9 inch spring form pan.

Vegan Flourless Chocolate Cake

*A high powered blender like a VitaMix is needed for this recipe. See her tips if you don't have one*

Ingredients:

1/4 cup + 2 TBS coconut oil

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips 

1 1/2 cups plain, unsalted black beans, rinsed and drained (I used regular black beans when I was testing the recipe and didn't notice a difference from the low sodium beans, I couldn't find unsalted)

1 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked 4-6 hours, rinsed and drained (I softened mine in very hot (boiling) water for 10 minutes)

1 1/2 cups of water

1/2 cup + 1 TBS honey or agave (I used agave)

1/2 cup + 1 TBS dark cocoa powder (I used regular when I tested the recipe and it was fine, but I preferred the dark cocoa powder)

1/4 cup + 2TBS coconut flour

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

"Tester" cake ( I baked this in a 5 inch cake pan and dusted with powdered sugar).

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F.  Grease spring form pan with coconut oil and dust with cocoa powder.

Combine coconut oil and chocolate chips in pan over lower heat until just softened.

Transfer slightly cooled chocolate mixture to blender and add all remaining ingredients, except baking powder.

Blend on medium-high until super smooth. Add baking powder and blend on low for 5-10 seconds.

Immediately pour mixture into prepared pan.

Bake for 45-55 minutes.

Remove cake from oven and transfer to fridge(wrap in tea towel while still warm). Let chill 4-6 hours. Run knife around edge of pan before removing.

Garnish with ganache (coconut oil and chocolate chips), chocolate shavings or powdered sugar.

Serve cold.

Keep leftovers in the fridge.

This cake does have a strong coconut flavor from the coconut flour and oil so if you're not a fan, this probably isn't the cake for you. I thought it tasted like a dark chocolate/coconut Easter egg!

It's very rich and dense and a little piece packs a lot of chocolate pow!

Did you enter my giveaway for one of these?
Sorry, this giveaway is closed!

Let's keep in touch!

    

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{Traditions} Baby Time Capsule

 This is a fun tradition that requires a lot of patience but is so worth it.  For our daughter's first birthday, we asked people to bring something timely from the last year to put in her time capsule.

 

It was to be opened on her 21st birthday.  I stenciled the crate #fancy and even put the date on it so we wouldn't cheat or forget what year we were planning on opening it.   This box has moved with us twice and has been up in our current attic for almost ten years.

 It was finally time to celebrate her 21st birthday (read about it here) and open the capsule! 

Some of the things we found in there:

*the outfit she came home from the hospital in and her hospital bracelet

*newspapers and magazines from the past year (a lot of it was focused on the OJ trial)

*baseball cards

*silver dollars

 *coins from the year 

*notes from family members (one from my grandmother that is so special)

*lots of photos

I'm not sure what she's opening here but it could be jewelry from her grandma.

 There was a collectible Campbell Soup ornament from her grandfather.

 Her first legal drink meant to be shared with her uncle (one for each). 

This was a dress made by a friend who had also made her a matching one for her first birthday.

Cute idea!

I think this one was a favorite.

You could start this tradition any year with your child or even your spouse...a wedding time capsule might be fun to open on your 25th anniversary.  Darn! Now why didn't I think of that??

We "only" have six more years until Miss High School gets to open her baby time capsule!!

pssst...did you enter my giveaway yet?

Let's keep in touch!

Linking up with:
Welcome To the Weekend

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{Entertaining} Some 21 Fun

Last month we celebrated College Girl's 21st Birthday! 

The invitations were from Shutterfly and I used their chalkboard theme to set the theme of the party. 

This is the back of the invitation with a photo from her first birthday.

Where does the time go?

 The party was going to be a walk down memory lane,culminating with the opening of her time capsule.

 I don't know who was more excited about opening it, the birthday girl or me!

 I kept a crate of special baby clothes that I couldn't part with and used some of them to make a decorative clothesline across the family room.   We used white rope, 3M hooks and clothespins for an inexpensive, yet adorable decoration.

 Photos of her in the outfits were also added in where we had them.  I've been holding on to the clothes to hopefully have a quilt made with them one day.

Pink and black became the color scheme and I bought lots of pink flowers.

I also made this fun pleated fan decoration to highlight the sweets table.

The vegan chocolate decadence cake.

 Putting the finishing touches on the clothesline.

Getting ready for our guests...

 Bar area and menu.

 Dinner is served!

Menu:

Tomato Pie

Shredded Kale Salad

Spicy Peanut Thai Noodles

Vegetarian Sushi

Assorted Vegetarian Wraps 

Meatballs and Rolls

***

I used little chalkboard flags to label the food and stuck them into lemons if I couldn't stick them in the actual food (like the salad).

 Opening her time capsule.

 This was a fun find (vintage Phillies hat)!

As was this! (bottles of alcohol from an uncle).

After the time capsule opening, we served dessert out in the kitchen.  We had the cake, cupcakes, Meyer Lemon Cookies, ice cream and some treats that guests brought like chocolate candy and a cookie tray.

We also made Rainbow Fruit Kabobs.

It was a special night filled with memories, friend and family!

Happy Birthday Sweetie! I can't believe you're 21!

Let's keep in touch!

    

Linking up with:
Alphabe-Thursday

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{Link Party} Friday Favorites #100 & Features

Hey, hey, hey! It's that time again!

It's Friday Favorites time where you can link up your weekly favorites and get some great inspiration too!

My features from last week:

This sweet card from Julie at It's Always Ruetten caught my eye. She was commissioned by a co-worker to create a masculine Valentine's Day card and this one is just perfect!

Amy from Home Remedies shared her Master Bedroom Design Board.  It sure looks dreamy to me!

Laura from Over the Apple Tree made this beautiful Crochet Shawl .

I'll be linking up my Magnetic Memo Board Jewelry Organizer (don't forget to enter my giveaway to win one yourself!)

Sorry this giveaway is closed.

I hope you'll link up something too!

Now onto this week's party.

Rules:

LINK & LINGER WITH A NEW BLOG

Link 1-3 of your projects- older projects work too!

Link back to www.ourlifeinaclick.blogspot.com 

Social media shout outs for the party are encouraged!

Please add our button to your post!

I'm going to be co-hosting this link up with these lovely ladies!

Laura from I'm Not a Trophy Wife

Emily from Our House, Now a Home

Morgan from Finding Morgan

They'd love it if you'd follow them and link up a project!!

Let's keep in touch!

    

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