Okay, so I was going through some pictures and I just happened upon my “Becky & Elesha” file.  I couldn’t resist, so here is a snapshot of Becky and I throughout our marvelous friendship.

The beginnings (2006)

We love Christmas and hats (2007 )

Always being silly (2008)

With my favorite blonde (2009)

Yes, we love each other (2010)

Becky and I share a lot of loves, but today I’m going to focus on one in particular: coffee.  Oh, the joy of coffee – the aroma, its bittersweet perfection, the joy of sharing conversation over a cup of it.  I must admit that I enjoy a small cup of espresso almost every morning, as part of a balanced diet, of course.  The other day, I met a lady who was 94-years-old and in awesome shape.  She was hanging out at the pool in 100 degree Texas weather and walking around cracking jokes, laughing.  It was amazing!  I’ve seen 70-year-olds who look older than she did!  My hubby asked her what her secret is and she answered “I drink coffee everyday”.  That sounds good to me.

So this brings me to another love of mine: cake.  I’m certain most of you can understand why it is a love of mine.  I mean, what’s not to love?  Sweet, moist, decadent, melt-in-your mouth cake.  Now there is this thing called coffee cake.  Match made in heaven, right?  Well, the thing is, coffee cake doesn’t actually have coffee in it at all.  I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like coffee cake and everything, but it really should just be called cinnamon cake.  Adding coffee to the name just builds up all this expectation of coffee flavored cake and my hopes are always dashed.  Well, no more.  I give you:

Real Coffee Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

• 2 ½ cups oat flour or whole wheat pastry flour (I used half and half)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 ½ cups raw sugar
• ¾ cup butter (or any substitute)
• 1 cup milk (I used coconut milk)
• ½ cup applesauce (in place of 2 eggs)
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 tablespoons ground coffee (I used Kona)

Mix all your dry ingredients, except the raw sugar, together.  Then mix all your wet ingredients with the raw sugar and heat for about 1 minute in the microwave to dissolve the sugar and melt the butter.  Then mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer.  If you want to add a cinnamon crumble, pour a portion of the cake batter into a muffin tin to bake two muffins.   Pour the rest of the cake batter into an oiled cake pan and bake for about 20-30 minutes at 350.

Once the cake is baked through, take out of the oven and let it cool a bit before take it out of the cake pan.

Now it’s time to make the dark chocolate ganache.  Don’t you love that word, ganache?  I do.  Even the word sounds delicious.

Dark Chocolate Ganache

• ½ cup coconut milk (I’m sure soymilk would work as well)
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 4 semi-sweet chocolate baking squares (I used Baker’s.  If you don’t have baking bars, just add whatever chocolate you have until consistency seems right)

Pour the milk and coconut oil into a saucepan and heat on low to medium heat until warm.  Once it’s warm, begin to melt the chocolate into the saucepan.  When the ganache is done, it will have a silky texture.

Now you can coat your cake with this amazing goodness.  Then sprinkle your cinnamon crumble over it and stick it in the fridge to harden up.

It really is perfection.

~Elesha, a skinnyfat girl