Double Chocolate baby cakes -- cheeky monkey does a double take -- vegan, gluten free, and proud

Baby cakes are not cakes suitable for babies and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Seriously. I found one of my recipes (ginger baby cakes) collected onto someone else's blog as cakes suitable for giving your one year old for their birthday. If you really want to give your baby a cake that is super spicy with fresh ginger, you are about one in a million if not one in a billion. I called 'em baby cakes because they are little. Like babies. Babies are little, relative to adults. Even baby blue whales are little when they stand beside mama blue. And baby cakes are little when they stand beside a lovely full-size layer cake.

These too are baby cakes, and most likely not appropriate for babies. These are super chocolatey. Cacao and chocolate chips give it the one-two punch of double chocolate goodness. Date chunks add a creamy hit of sweetness. Decadent!

I've been rocking this batter of chickpea flour and sunflower seed flour with a little tapioca and chia. It's soft, delicate, and structurally sound. Fabulosity.

So, for sweet, moist, chocolatey baby cakes of sinful divinity, check out my humbly boastful recipe, from my heart to yours.

Vegan, whole foods, plant based, nut-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, grain-free, not dry, not gritty, just plain awesome. And good for you, if you can believe it. Read it and don't weep. Just ... enjoy.

ingredients:

3 cups water
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup coconut sugar
1/4 cup date sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup ground chia seeds
1 tbsp ground vanilla bean

3/4 cup raw cacao

1 1/4 cup chickpea flour
1 cup ground sunflower seeds (sunflower seed flour)
1 tsp baking soda

1 cup chopped dates
1 cup chocolate chips

directions:

preheat your oven to 345

1. melt the coconut oil by adding it to 1 cup of warm water

2. add in the coconut sugar and date sugar

3. add in 2 cups of cold water

4. add the vanilla extract and apple cider vinegar

5. whisk in the ground chia, tapioca starch, raw cacao, sea salt, and ground vanilla bean

6. whisk in the chickpea flour

7. stir in the sunflower seed flour and the baking soda

8. mix in the chopped dates and chocolate chips (we used krisda)

9. scoop the batter into 24 prepared silicone muffin cups or lined muffin tins

10. bake at 345 for 35 or 40 minutes

bake 345 for 35-40 minutes

makes 24 baby cakes