Bake A Heart Shaped Chocolate Cake For Valentine’s Day

Cora, age 11, Allandria, age 10 and little Eloise, age 3, enjoy kitchen time together.

Conversation hearts and handmade heart cutouts, decorated with glitter and glue, litter my childhood memories of Valentine’s Day. It was a fun day, a time to tell others you cared about them and an excuse to have candy at school parties. This year things look different and many kids will miss out on those grade-school Valentine’s Day parties many of us remember. To make this year special for your kids, try baking a special Valentine’s Day treat together.

There are two crucial ingredients for special Valentine’s Day baked goods. The first is a heart-shaped baking pan. Yes, you may only use it once a year, but using a heart-shaped pan is part of what makes it special for Valentine’s Day. Heart-shaped cookie cutters can also be used to cut out smaller, heart-shaped cakes from larger, circular or rectangular cakes.

The second crucial ingredient? Love. C’mon, you knew that was coming. Seriously though, taking the time to prepare food with or for your family is one of the oldest and most universally understood ways of saying, “I love you and I care about you.”

Valentine’s Day treats do not have to be unhealthy. From oil and egg substitutes to using black beans in brownies, there are a variety of baking substitutions that can nudge your baked sweet treats a little closer to the healthy zone. To ensure that the end product isn’t too different from what was intended, try one substitution at a time. Using unsweetened applesauce to replace fat is not a new or trendy substitution, but it works really well!

Unsweetened applesauce is a great substitute for half or all of the oil or butter in many baked recipes. It adds moisture, a little fiber, and reduces fat content and overall calories. Jenni Dye, a mom of three, Registered Dietitian and director of the Market Match program at CSU, Chico’s Center for Healthy Communities, agrees. “I especially like to do this substitution with carrot cake and zucchini bread. My kids don’t even notice a difference. Sometimes if I am worried the substitution will not work in a recipe, I just replace half of the oil with applesauce. If that works out, the next time I make the recipe I do a full substitution.”

Like Jenni, I love moist carrot cake and zucchini bread, and the applesauce substitution works well in other baked treats. I came across this simple and delicious chocolate cake recipe that is easy enough that kids of all ages can help. Our recipe here was adapted to replace the usual oil with unsweetened applesauce. It also uses whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular whole wheat flour, helping keep the cake tender and not too dense.

Put on something pink, grease your heart-shaped pan and bake something special with your family this Valentine’s Day.

Simple Chocolate Cake

Adapted from EatingWell

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 hot water
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch heart-shaped cake pan with cooking spray. Line the pan with waxed paper.

Whisk together the flour, organic cane sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Add buttermilk, brown sugar, egg, applesauce and vanilla to the bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for two minutes. Add hot water and beat to blend. The batter will be thin. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake the cake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake from the pan, peel off the waxed paper and let cool completely on the wire rack. Dust the top with confectioners’ sugar before slicing or dust individual slices when serving.