Sometimes I wonder if time is moving faster as you get older. Do you know this feeling?

I remember, when I was a kid, time seemed to strech endlessly in front of me. Especially when there was an exciting event just lurking around the corner. Like Christmas, or birthdays. These days, I feel like I have to set up several reminders in my phone to make sure time is not rushing me past those events, without me realizing!

A few days ago I was very aware of this phenomenon again, as it was time to celebrate with my beloved husband Douglas: our 6th wedding anniversary came upon us!
I’m sure, if I was still a child, I would have marked this day in the calendar a month before and counted down every single day until the big day was arriving. My busy adult self, however, was only realizing about the upcoming event around one week before! Thank god my mum happened to be off that afternoon to take care of our son, so we could spend a couple couple-hours :–)

I actually planned to bake us something chocolatey for this occation, if it only wasn’t for this other problem with time…

There you are in the morning of a day filled with it’s 24 hours, with a rough plan of what you want to achieve, only to find yourself in the evening with just half of your goals reached and a feeling that time got the better of you again. The hours slipped through your fingers mercilessly. So, no homemade sweet treat for our anniversary :–/

Luckily there are always two sides to a coin and on this one there was a picture of a romantic candlelight dinner in a nice restaurant, including a lovely dessert ;–)
So it is not always a bad thing, if time doesn’t let you have it your way. Although I enjoy the satisfying feeling, when my schedule works out, sometimes it can even be a liberating experience to just kick your plans overboard and be spontaneous, right?

It is a bit difficult for me though, as I am a born planner. But it helps to be married to a Brazilian ;–) In my experience (really only my experience, maybe to you it is all different ;–)) they are the born not-planners – in good and bad ways. Douglas and I have learned from each other in those past six years and are kind of balancing out one another these days. And I have learned not to go crazy over open points of the list.

For our anniversary we spontaneously decided to visit the local spa. Relaxing in the warming waves of the heated outdoor swimming pool, we were reminiscing about the overall great times we spent together in the past six years, while snowflakes were dancing down their way to earth around us. I know… quiet an amazing romantic highlight, right? Sometimes the wheather is on our side, if not the time ;–)

But the originally intended baking project did not let go of me! Hope you will find a few minutes in your busy days to bake this gorgeous, healthy chocolate cake for your upcoming special day. Or just for the next tea-time ;–) Or be Braziliany spontaneous and simply do it NOW ;–)

This cake is already lovely on it’s own, but I do recommend to perfect it with this AMAZING chocolate-coconut-frosting. I also love to throw some fresh fruit on top of everything. By the way, this frosting could easily be served on it’s very own. Garnished with a few fresh fruits and maybe some roasted, roughly chopped nuts and there you have your chocolate-cream-dessert :–)

Anyway, have a great chocolate-time!

Ingredients:
1 cup holds 250 ml = your average coffee cup

for the cake:

• 1 cup (145g) whole spelt flour
• 1/2 cup (48g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup (47g) whole cane sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp ground coffee
• dash ground cloves
• dash salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup (40g) roughly chopped walnuts (simply omit if allergy is an issue)
• 1 cup (270g) very ripe (spotted skin) mashed banana (approx. 3 bananas)
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil (or other neutral tasting oil)
• 1 tbsp apple vinegar
• 1 tbsp rum (alcohol will evaporate when baking)

for the frosting:

• 1 can (400ml) full fat coconut milk, stored in the fridge overnight (I like storing some cans in the fridge at all times – have it ready when you want delicious whipped coconut cream with your desserts :–))
• 100 g dark chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C top-bottom heat and line your baking tray with baking paper.
2. In a medium bowl mix well all dry ingredients, in a smaller bowl all wet ingredients.
3. Pour the wet to the dry ingredients and stir well, but don’t overmix – just until well combined without any dry spots.
4. Don’t worry at this point. The batter does not have your regular cake-batter-consitency. It is rather firm. That is great, however, because now you can go ahead, pour/spoon the batter on the baking paper in exactly your desired shape(s), around 1 1/2 cm thick. It will not spread while baking, just slightly rise. So simply bake it all in one square shape or spoon out 2 or 3 smaller rounds to make it a layer cake. All up to you ;–) You could also add some fresh/frozen fruit on top (I tried with mandarins last time, was gorgeous!).
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. When a toothpick comes out clean, the cake is ready to be devoured. Except of course, you don’t want to miss out on this adorable chocolate-coconut-frosting.
6. While the cake is baking away in the oven, melt the chocolate in a water bath.
7. Opening the can of coconut milk, you will find that the watery part separated from the creamy part while it was cooling in the fridge. Scoop the creamy part into a small bowl and stir until smooth (the remaining water can be used in smoothies, soups, curries…).
8. Add the liquid chocolate, stir until well combined and transfer back to the fridge to firm up somewhat again.
9. Frost your cake, once it has completely cooled :–)

Prep time: cake 20 minutes, frosting 5 minutes
Bake/cook time: cake 30 minutes, frosting 10 minutes
Yields one square cake of approx. 23×23 cm (9×9 inch)
or two rounds of approx. 16 cm (6 1/4 inch) in diameter