Shirtless Chef – You say it’s your birthday? Here’s the cake that helps you have more birthdays.

Local fitness enthusiast Jason Murphy remakes favorite meals of his youth into healthy dishes. See the full list of his recipes at www.mysaline.com/shirtless.

There are times when you just need a chocolate cake, damn it. Say, like after hearing The Beatles song “They Say It’s Your Birthday” on the radio. Yep, that will do it. Or, perhaps like myself and my son, you just had an actual birthday. I turned 48 this past week, and even being the so-called Shirtless Chef, it just calls for a chocolate cake. Age is a funny thing. Everyone blames the dreaded “middle age spread” on the years, but recent studies show that metabolism stays the same from age 20 to 60. The real factors in weight gain are what types of foods you are eating, and the amounts consumed.

Before I lost the extra 80 lbs. I carried around, I blamed it on age and a slower metabolism, but I would also eat an entire supermarket sheet cake in about 2 days. I had all but given up on ever being in shape or looking the way I wanted. I was working out hard, but even if I had lived in a 24-hour gym, that jelly belly was not going anywhere with the foods I was eating.

Fast forward 6 years, and it turns out my metabolism is just fine. I just had to give it a fighting chance. The left side of this pic (below) is from age 42 when I just started to eliminate processed foods, and the right side is age 48. The workouts have stayed the same. The metabolism is 6 years older. All the weight loss is from one thing, replacing the simple carbs, sugars, and chemical preservatives from processed and pre-prepared foods with homemade meals and desserts using natural ingredients. And that includes still eating chocolate cake, just made the shirtless chef way.

So there’s the proof. It is possible to have your cake and eat it too, and eliminate the damage done by a store bought or box cake. There is way too much bad ju-ju going on there to list, and if my only options were a store bought sheet cake or a box mix, I would just do without any cake. This healthy cake recipe saves the day, and the taste is just as good, if not better. I like to pair it with a scoop of low carb vanilla ice cream. Most mega-marts carry several brands of low carb ice cream, some are better than others, both in taste and ingredients. Rebel brand makes great keto ice cream, and although Breyers low carb ice cream isn’t quite as clean on ingredients as I like, the taste is outstanding and great for those special once in a while treats. Of course, if you have an ice cream maker at home, buy some grass fed heavy cream and a vanilla bean pod, and make some homemade ice cream, which is the best there is. This is an easy cake to make, and with the health benefits over a standard cake, it will make everyone feel like it’s their birthday.

Healthy Chocolate Cake:

Ingredients

1½ cups fine almond flour
½ cup coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
3 sticks grass fed butter at room temp,divided
4 free range eggs at room temp
3 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk or vanilla hemp milk
1 cup stevia in the raw granulated sweetener
8 oz grass fed cream cheese softened
1/2 cup grass fed heavy cream whipped
2 cups Lakanto powdered monkfruit sweetener plus 3 Tbsp
1/2 cup raw cocoa powder
1/4 to 1/2 cup grass fed milk
70% or darker chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two eight inch round pans by folding a piece of parchment paper in half, folding the edges down like you are making a paper airplane, and cut the bottom radius using the pan edge as a guide. I will also spray some non-stick spray in the bottom of the pan first to help the parchment paper stick in place:

Mix the 1½ cups fine almond flour, ½ cup coconut flour, 2 tsp baking powder, and ¼ tsp salt in a bowl and whisk until well blended.

In another large bowl, add 2 sticks of butter and 1 cup of granulated sweetener. Use a hand mixer to cream until it becomes light and fluffy. Then add the eggs in one at a time, mixing each with the hand mixer until fully incorporated. Note the dark yellow color of a free range pasture egg. If your eggs have the light pale yellow yolk of a chicken house raised bird, that’s a sign it’s time to switch brands:

Once all the eggs are in, add 2 tsp of the vanilla extract and the 1/2 cup of almond milk and mix again, then add the dry ingredients and combine with spatula until it has all come together creamy and smooth:

Rub the sides of the cake pans with butter to grease, and fill each one evenly with the cake batter, smoothing out the tops. This batter will be thicker than normal box cake batter. Bake for 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean, and then cool the cakes completely:

While the cake is cooling, use a hand mixer to whip the 1/2 cup of heavy cream to stiff peaks. Then in another bowl, beat the 8 ounces of cream cheese until smooth. Add the three tbsp of powdered sweetener and beat again until smooth.

Use a spatula to fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese until it comes together:

Then add the dark chocolate chips to the mixture and fold in again:

To make the frosting, beat the last stick of butter with the 2 cups of powdered sweetener until smooth. Add the tsp of vanilla extract and beat again, then add the cocoa powder and beat once more. Slowly add the milk until you reach the consistency of frosting, anywhere from 1/2 to 1/2 cup cup. Just add a little at a time and work it in until it looks like frosting and is spreadable. If any chocolate frosting flys off the beaters onto the floor, having an automatic floppy-eared Roomba floor cleaner comes in handy. She wanted me to mention that if any of you are worried she’s licking chocolate off the floor, that first – mind your own business, and second – the saying that chocolate kills dogs is just a rumor that cats started to mess with them. I can neither confirm or deny that it’s true, I’m just relaying the message she forced me to say at pawpoint.