Very few people truly get enough plant based foods on any given day. It is something we all strive for but with busy schedules and other circumstances, most of us fall short. This chocolate spinach cake has TWO cups of fresh organic baby spinach leaves baked right into the moist chocolatey goodness. I’d say that makes a great “treat” for finicky kids and grown-ups alike!
The texture of this cake is fantastic and the spinach is undetectable. I have not tried it with other greens so I’ll leave the experimentation to you! I did use a 7×10.5″ baking pan for this one, but it also makes perfectly delicious cupcakes if you want to go that route.
Ingredients:
- 5 eggs
- 2 cups fresh organic baby spinach
- 1/4 cup coconut flour + 1 tablespoon
- 1/2 cup arrowroot flour + 1 tablespoon (tapioca works too)
- 1/3 cup organic cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup local raw honey or maple
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 teaspoons cooking fat of choice (butter, ghee, coconut oil, olive oil)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground sea salt
- 1 teaspoon organic gluten free vanilla
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened flax, almond, or coconut milk
- Optional: one handful of dairy free chocolate chips
- preheat oven to 350
- combine all ingredients into vitamix or substantial blender
- blend until batter is a smooth consistency with no chunks or visible leaves
- pour into greased cake pan (i use coconut oil to grease)
- optional: after 10 minutes of baking, sprinkle chocolate chips on top of cake and continue baking
- bake for 20 minutes, check to see if center is done, then bake for another 5. continue checking in 5 minute intervals as some ovens vary (mine was done in 25 minutes total)
What kind of sauce did you put on the top of your sliced cake? (2nd to last picture) Thanks! Can’t WAIT to try this!!
It’s a caramel sauce made with coconut milk and maple sugar!
I think we need the caramel sauce recipe too please! That looks reeeeeeeally good. I made these today as cupcakes for the kids. They were dense, fudgey, and terrific! What a great after school snack.
Awesome, glad you enjoyed them! For the caramel sauce I use full fat coconut milk and mix in a saucepan with coconut sugar. I don’t have the exact measurements but it only takes those two ingredients and a pinch of salt and vanilla!
what size cake pan did you use? thanks.
Hi Marilyn, I believe I used an 11×7 pan. Thanks!
Thank you for taking the time to reply… M.
Will my Cuisinart food processor work for this instead of a blender?
Yes that should work great!
Cool, thanks! Can’t wait to try it.
Hi Marilyn, I can really stuff my face with this cake!! However we follow a low carb diet and cannot use arrow root flower , what can I use in stead of arrow root. Could one use ground chia seeds in stead ? Many thanks for posting your recipes , kind regards from Sunny South Africa,
Am I Marilyn? If so 😉 I don’t think chia seeds would work. Maybe try almond flour instead if you can tolerate nuts, it would be a better fit. Chia seeds tend to get gummy!
Sorry for using the incorrect name Jennifer, I was reading previous posts on your page that a “Marilyn” had posted 🙂 . Thanks for your comment , I also thought that the chia seeds might become too gelish in consistency. I’m definitely going to try the almond flour. Many thanks xx
Hope you enjoy it!! No worries about the name, sometimes people comment on other reader’s comments so I was just double checking!
Would frozen spinach work?
Yes but make sure you get all the excess water out and maybe reduce the amount since it is condensed.
I know you are primarily paleo but I want to make this for a potluck with the spinach from our garden. How much flour can I use instead of the coconut and arrowroot?
Hi Cherylee, I haven’t worked with regular flour in years so I am not sure! But I would say you could probably sub out the arrowroot for regular flour and then add a big more until it feels like cake batter. Hope that helps!
Thanks for replying! I am making this tomorrow for our community garden group and gluten free is much more expensive to cook with, as you know. And unappreciated. We have LOTS of spinach right now and this seems a great way to get the children (and chocoholics) to eat more. I will post how it goes. I may just use the almond powder instead.
Thanks for sharing your journey and so many good recipes. Very much appreciated.
I made these with flour instead. It took about 2 cups to make a cake batter. They were much like a dense sponge cake with so many eggs. But I sliced the cake in half and filled it with whipping cream. They were a HUGE hit and most adults were excited they were spinach brownies. I like them but plan to make them soon as written. I don’t have arrowroot and use the flax seed instead.
I give this recipe a thumbs up if you want to get more spinach in the diet of a picky eater. Or if you are like me you just like to make crazy healthy food with fun ingredients that people have to guess the secret ingredient!
Just made these a second time with a few changes. I melted the chocolate chips and used coffee instead of milk and they have much more chocolate flavour. And I also added 1 more tbsp. of sugar. They are GREAT!!
Did you replace the almond milk completely with coffee? I really want to try your changes? Sorry I am new to this changing recipes.
I can’t say 100% but it sounds like she did sub coffee completely for the almond milk. Sounds good doesn’t it?
I did replace the whole amount of milk with coffee.
How do these freeze? Thanks!
It should freeze well but I actually have never done so before – it goes so quickly!
Thank you for the quick reply! We are heading to the beach in a week and wanted to take some!
Hi! I am doubting the possibility, but is there anything I can do to omit the eggs? Thanks!
Mmmmm, I mafe brownies with frozen spinach for my son’s preschool class but that was 18 years ago! ? The kids had no idea and the preschool teacher loved them!
Tried it tonight substituting baby kale for spinach and it turned out great. Everyone liked the spongy texture and size of the cake was perfect. Not too many dangerous leftovers 😉 Thanks for the recipe!
Yay! That’s great to hear!
With the fresh spinach, is it a tightly packed cup? Or could you provide the number of ounces, if weighing ingredients. I prefer to do that when I bake for consistency of recipes for breads and cakes.
Not too tight, it shouldn’t make a big difference but I’d say two heaping cups not packed tight will work just fine!
What can I sub for coconut flour I have a sensitivity, could I use banana flour or pumpkin flour?
I haven’t used those others before, tigernut would probably work.
Absolutely love this recipe. I make it about once a week and even made it for my son’s birthday and served it with coconut icing to non-paleo family and they all loved it too! It’s so easy and yummy!
This is also a really flexible recipe! In case anyone else is curious about substitutions, I always use Pamela’s gluten-free flour to sub in place of the coconut/arrowroot flour because that’s just what I keep on hand and it’s still a good 1-1 sub. I’ve also used goat milk, heavy cream, and locally-sourced pasture-raised cow milk — all work great. And I’ve tried it with fresh super green mix, and frozen spinach. I like the fresh super-green salad mix flavor the best, but it’s easier sometimes to just use the frozen spinach, plus I think the flash-frozen spinach keeps more of its nutrients than the fresh salad mixes. Hope that helps anyone else who was wondering if this recipe works with other substitutions, in case they don’t have a particular ingredient on hand.
Thank you for this awesome recipe Jennifer!
Thank you Ashley, that’s wonderful! I appreciate your feedback!
Hi
I made this and it turned out rather chewy instead of a cake type texture. Any idea why?