Paleo Pumpkin Butternut Cocoa Cake

I love this cake. You will, too.
I preheated the oven to 350 degrees.
I greased a 9 x 12 cake pan with coconut oil.
In a small bowl, I stirred the dry ingredients until evenly mixed:
2 cups almond meal
2/3 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa (or your favorite kind)
1 TBSP cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp dried Valencia Orange Peel (it's in the spices aisle)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp espresso powder (this can be left out, or you can use instant coffee)

In a bigger bowl, I stirred up the wet ingredients:
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted to a liquid
1/2 cup honey (warmed to a liquid if it's raw)
4 eggs
1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1 15 oz. can organic butternut squash ( I order it from Amazon. If you want, you can just use 2 cans of pumpkin puree, but the butternut squash is SO GOOD!)
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
( I have made this cake with 2 TBSP Amaretto, but this is optional)

I added the dry ingredient mixture into the wet mixture, and stirred until it was all evenly mixed up. I just used a wooden spoon.

I poured the batter into the pan and evened it out with a spatula. Then I placed it into the heated oven for 50 minutes. This moist cake will crack along the top a bit, and pull away from the edges of the pan when it's about done.
It hit the spot when I craved a warm, chocolate....something. And, I got to count it as 2 vegetables!
I planned to get a pic of a piece of this cake, all pretty on a plate, but we ate it so fast, I got distracted!

So, I made it again and took this photo this morning.  And, I make this one for birthdays now. It's a staple around here. SO GOOEY!

Paleo Spinach Bacon Pizza

I have to give credit to Sarah at Everyday Paleo. I LOVE her pizza crust at everydaypaleo.com. I use it just like she does, just with a little less fresh rosemary AND I always double it!

So, here's Sarah's crust:

"2 cups almond meal
2 eggs
3 TBSP olive oil
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 TBSP fresh rosemary, chopped

Preheat your oven to 350. Using a spoon mix all crust ingredients together until it becomes very thick.  Using your hands, form the crust into a ball.  Lightly grease a cookie sheet with olive oil. (I used coconut oil.) Place the ball of dough in the center of your cookie sheet, and using your hands push and pat the dough down in the shape of a circle or oval.  You want to make the dough as thin as possible.  Your pizza will be about 12 inches across. Bake JUST the crust in your pre-heated oven for 20 minutes."        - Sarah, Everyday Paleo

Now, here's what I did to top my Paleo Spinach Bacon Pizza:
(remember, I doubled Sarah's crust)

I chopped 1/2 a white onion, a red pepper, and a yellow pepper. I put that all in a large skillet along with a heaping TBSP of coconut oil and cooked over medium-high heat until softened, (maybe 4-5 minutes) stirring often.  Next, I added a big container of organic baby spinach, a handful at a time, stirring, to wilt. This took about 2 minutes. I put this mixture in a big colander and pressed on it with a spoon, to get as much liquid out as possible. ( I think it would make the crust soggy if I didn't do this....) Then, I opened a jar of Mezzetta Tomato Basil Sauce and spooned and spread sauce over the crust.  I didn't put too much, again, so I wouldn't make the crust soggy.  (When you shop, read the ingredients and look for a sauce with out sugar.)

Then I split the spinach - pepper - onion mixture between the 2 crusts and spread it out to the edges.  The last thing I did was cook 12 pieces of UNCURED bacon in the microwave, not too crunchy. When they cooled, I broke the bacon up and added it to the top of the pizza. Wow. Everything was ready. The pizzas went back into the oven at 350 for 12 minutes.

Ok, I am so glad I came up with this one today because Ger just PR'd on Fran by 14 seconds!   2:33, baby!  Ger deserves my new Paleo Spinach Bacon Pizza!

I have a lighter pizza crust on this blog now that you might want to try. It has less almond meal and some coconut flour and arrowroot powder to lighten it up and make it closer to real pizza dough, but still PALEO.