For Mr H’s 30th birthday last month I set myself the secret mission of coming up with a healthy, but totally delicious and indulgent chocolate cake. Here at D&H, we whole heartedly believe in the concept of ‘active avoidance’, which means that most of the time we are pretty darn healthy, but we’d never deny ourselves something if our body is totally craving it. Instead, we’d have a little bit of what we fancy, or we’d try and make a healthier version, or (if the situation really commands it) we’d eat the unhealthy version and not let ourselves stress about it, because stress creates toxic hormones which we can definitely do without.Birthdays however seem to be a law unto themselves when it comes to food. Having a birthday means you can eat whatever you want for one day only and not feel the slightest bit of guilt about it, because after all it’s the one day out of every three hundred and sixty five (and a 1/4) you get to celebrate the amazingness of YOU, so why not go all out? This ‘birthday theory’ is a little contagious though; how often have you indulged, guilt free, because it was your partner/family member/friend/colleague’s birthday, and there was cake, and it would be rude not to, and you can’t let them be the only one eating cake on their birthday, and it’s winking at you and OH it’s so delicious and let’s just have some more. Sound familiar?

I’m not going to lie – the recipe testing for this was brutal. I tried many cake batters, I licked many spoons. And then suddenly I had a brainwave – avocado. With the addition of this creamy beauty my cake was instantly elevated to the next level – it gave my creation a mouthwateringly gooey, fudgey and moist texture, and it took all my self control not to wolf down the whole cake there and then.

And Mr H? Well he bloody loved it. We ate it on his birthday (without guilt, of course) and then we carried on eating it every day afterwards (still without a flicker of guilt) until it was all gone.

A healthy chocolate fudge cake, who would have thought it? Try it for yourself and see!

Ingredients

Makes one cake, double up the recipe if you want to make two layers, as pictured

• 2 ripe avocados 
• 3 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 1 cup oats
• 1/4 tsp Himalayan sea salt
• 2/3 cup cacao powder
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 cup dates

 For the icing:

• One batch of our dreamy four ingredient chocolate frosting

The method for this is super easy, first combine the dates, oats and chia seeds in a food processor and whizz until they become a sticky, crumbly mixture. Then add in the remaining ingredients and continue processing until you have a super smooth (and super tasty) batter. Spoon this into your cake tin and bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a fork inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Set the cake aside and leave for an hour or so to cool. When cooled, whizz up the frosting and slather it over the top. Deeeelicious.

Love, D&H xx