Chocolate Quinoa Cake (Includes a quick Ganache Recipe)

Chocolate cake that uses quinoa instead of flour. Amazing!

 I've been playing around with making "healthy" sweets.   Well, healthier anyway.  And I have some friends who are gluten intolerant.  As in, just plain can't eat the stuff. I saw a recipe for chocolate quinoa cake and my interest was piqued.  However, so was my skepticism.  Seriously, could a cooked grain- actually a cooked seed, make a light, moist cake with an actual cake-like texture? Only one way to find out.  I made it. 

It was good.  The texture was a little dense, but not bad and I actually like that anyway.  My family devoured it.  They really didn't know the difference.  It stayed moist for 3 days.  That's how long I managed to hide the last few pieces, 3 days. I expected a weird texture or flavor.  Instead I got a really nice cake that I can make for people who can't eat traditional flour.  I think it's probably a bit healthier too.  Don't get me wrong.  There is sugar in it.  It is a treat, like any cake.  However, it is a treat that is a little better for you without sacrificing flavor.  Because I would rather have a small amount of fantastic, rather than a big amount of only okay.  So to have fantastic that is better for me; bonus!


I am going to direct you to the link that harbors the recipe that I used.  I normally make my own recipes, so I don't often redirect you, but it's not my recipe and I want to be fair.  But please come back and see me again.  I am posting my recipe for Whole Wheat Lemon Yogurt Blueberry Cake soon.  It was divine!

Any way the link is here: Chocolate Quinoa Cake

Oh- by the way, you may notice that my frosting is quite different.  I made a simple ganache by heating 1/2 c. cream (don't let it boil) and adding about 1 and 1/2 cups chocolate chips.  I use a mixture of semi-sweet and dark chocolate.  I stir until melted and let it set up to a pudding like consistency. I make this ahead of time and store it in the fridge.  When I made this cake, I pulled it out and spread it on the warm cake.  Then I added some more chocolate chips and let them melt into the cake a bit.  I spread it out with a knife.  It was a little like eating a layer of fudge on the cake.  Very yummy!

If You Keep Modifying, You Are No Longer on the Diet

I love Pinterest, don't you?  I find the most delicious looking desserts there. Seriously, I could drool all day.  But I have noticed something that at first made me raise an eyebrow and now makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.  You've seen it too.  It's raw cookie or raw brownie recipes.  I've clicked on these recipes, read them and even thought about making some. (Because they look good, not because they are raw.)  Now there is nothing wrong with raw eating, in fact I think more people should eat more raw foods. But lets be real, most people think they can make these treats and eat all the dessert they want and still lose weight.  It's not true.  Sugar is sugar.  Honey, Agave nectar, raw sugar, they all still raise your glucose levels.  Like anything, even "raw" treats must be treated as what they are; treats. 

This happens with every fad diet that comes along.  If the fad is no gluten, then a bevy of gluten free snacks and desserts appear on the internet.  Then people adhering to that diet wonder why their weight loss has stalled.  If the trend is low or no fat, snacks and cookies made fat-free appear all over, and people adhering to that diet start to wonder why their weight loss has stagnated.  Do you see a pattern?  Once the modifications starts- once you start looking for ways to have your favorite treats guilt free, you have altered the diet and it doesn't work anymore. 

In eating like a diabetic, you do make some changes.  Sugar substitutes become your friend.  However, if you just make all your favorite treats, with sugar substitutes you will find that it becomes difficult once again to control your weight.  Controlling weight is critical for diabetics.  Diabetics and dieters alike will probably find that they will be more successful and happier if they can learn to eat treats in moderation.  Learn to plan for them. Learn that if you eat a few cookies, you should probably add some time to your daily exercise, or you should plan to forgo the dinner roll if you are going to opt for some cake.  Learn that one dessert is enough and seconds are no longer an option.  Learn that sugar-free pudding is a better option than ice cream, but it still is not an every day occurrence. 

The hardest part of changing a diet is that we don't want to give up our favorite foods.  If you can find a way to make those foods healthier, great! You should.  However, part of a successful diet is changing your mindset, and your taste.  Healthy, yummy fruits and veggies should start becoming what you WANT not what you have to have.  If a mindset takes place, you will stay on the diet permanently, which is what you want to have happen.  You want to change your diet- not go on a diet. 

So keep pinning yummy looking treats on your Pinterest board.  Once in a while, make one of those yummy looking treats.  Then eat one helping and give the rest away.  Raw or chemical, a treat is a treat.  One is better for you, but both will stop weight loss, and both will raise sugar levels.