Natural Parenting Blog Party, continued: What's a Party Without Cake?

I am having so, so much fun participating in the blog party hosted by Jenny, the Peaceful Housewife.  I have been able to meet some amazing new bloggers and learn more about some of my favorites.  But now, I am going to brag just a little:  I get to meet up with the Peaceful Housewife, Littlemama Midwife and Gentle Mom in Training for a real party next week!  I am so excited!  And I am bringing cake.  :)

If you read our answers to Jenny's questions, one thing stands out that we all have in common:  a love for chocolate.  I love cake, too.  It relaxes me to fix cakes.  Eating them isn't bad, either.  Last summer, I started fixing what I think of as Amaya's birthday cake.  It is a chocolate layer cake with cheesecake and cherries between the layers.  I had planned to work on it during early labor so that when she was born, we could all share a celebratory cake.  It didn't quite turn out that way, but I still associate it with her, which is funny now since she cannot tolerate chocolate.   Pobrecita.  She will grow out of that, I hope.

I've mentioned all the other food allergies we have dealt with before.  This cake is egg-free, dairy-free if you use frosting instead of cheesecake, and wonder of wonders, actually works gluten-free, too!  The GF part still amazes me, because nearly every recipe I found was either EF *or* GF, but not both.  This was my go-to cake for the kidlets when they were small, although it is delicious with regular flour, too.

Amaya's Birthday Cake

3 C flour (regular or GF.  When we were GF, I just used a mixture of 2 1/4 C white rice flour with 3/4 tapioca flour)
2 C sugar
1/2 C cocoa powder (really chocolatey, but that is always good)
1 C mini chocolate chips (DF)
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vanilla
2 tsp vinager
2 C cold coffee
2/3 C minus 2 tsps of canola oil
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Cheesecake filling (if you are in a hurry and don't mind a little junk food, you can use 1 1/2 tubs of premade cheesecake filling.  Otherwise, mix cream cheese, vanilla and powdered sugar). Fresh cherries and berries or 1 jar of cherry preserves for topping.
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If you are going dairy free, forget the cheesecake filling and instead mix 1/2 C cocoa with 2 lbs powdered sugar, a good splash of vanilla and 1/4 C of shortening.  Add a little coffee if it is too thick.
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Preheat oven to 350*, and grease and sugar 2 8" round cake pans.  Mix dry ingredients, including chocolate chips, then add wet ingredients.  Mix and pour evenly into pans.  Bake for 25-30 minutes.  Cool.  Once the cake is cool, cut carefully into layers.  Place bottom layer on your serving platter and spread it with frosting or cheesecake filling.  If you are using fresh fruit, add some between the layers.  If you are using preserves, only put them on the top layer or it will cause them to slide apart.  Add another layer of cake and another layer of filling or frosting, and repeat.  For the top layer, either cover it in frosting or cheesecake filling and fresh fruit, or warm a jar of cherry preserves, stir well and pour over the top of the cake.  Any extra can be drizzled over individual slices of cake.  (Somehow, I always make the top of the frosting look messy, so I like this method a lot.)

I wish you could enjoy it with us, but I am sure that we will all eat a slice in your honor.  :)