Quinoa Chocolate Cake

Esme’s third birthday didn’t fall on one of her “school” days at daycare (yes, I call it school to lessen my guilt, what about it?) but her class wanted to be sure to celebrate her so they threw her a little party a couple of days before. They made her a paper birthday crown and a card that makes me tear up to think about. Her teachers wrote down her classmates birthday messages to Esme. Some of them understood it – “Happy, Happy Birthday! Love Kira” –  some of them, not so much – “Colour! love Georgia.”

I brought some pretty little cupcakes for everyone to share at snack time. Big mistake. I was a newbie and didn’t realize what an allergy minefield daycares and schools are these days. One of the little boys had a bowl of ice cream while the rest of the group had cupcakes. He really seemed fine with it but I felt terrible.

A friend recently mentioned this Quinoa Chocolate Cake recipe to me and I thought it sounded like a great – if a little strange – solution to the very common wheat allergy problem. It comes from a cookbook called Quinoa 365: The Everyday Superfood. All the parents in Esme’s class have been coming in to do projects with the group and Ben and I decided we’d make cake with the kids. It was a remarkably calm  experience  to cook with six three year olds. They all took turns adding and stirring ingredients and even though they couldn’t stop asking, “When will it be my turn?” they were very patient about waiting. I goofed and added a bit too much Quinoa to the recipe so the final result was a bit heavier than when I’d make it at home – but it makes a very moist, chocolate-y cake.

It will not look like a typical cake batter because of Quinoa’s texture. Esme’s class thought it smelled great but looked disgusting. Disgusting is a word that is really fun to yell when you’re three.

The cake was iced with a very simple butter icing (I always reduce the sugar by about half from a standard recipe) and consumed with abandon at afternoon snack time.

We baked the cake on a day Esme doesn’t typically got to school so she chose to come home with us rather than wait for the cake. But her friends made this lovely card to thank us. How sweet is that?