For many years during my childhood, we hosted my birthday party at one of the smaller pools in town. We invited a few of my classmates and our family friends, and we tied colorful balloons and spread out plastic tablecloths on a couple of the wooden picnic tables scattered around the pool.
My little friends and I spent as much time in the water as we could: playing Marco Polo, diving for plastic rings on the pool’s floor, and doing cannonballs off of the edge to see who could make the biggest splash. Yet when the lifeguards blew their whistles to signal the start of the 15-minute adult swim, we didn’t mind quite as much as usual…
Since that meant snack time—and Mom let us eat special snacks at my birthday party! Instead of our standard graham crackers, peanut butter, and apple slices, she let me pick out crunchy pretzel rods, potato chips, and a couple of different types of candy to share with my friends, and we always looked forward to those with giddy excitement.
Then towards the end of the afternoon, when the lifeguards blew their whistles yet again, we eagerly clambered onto the picnic table benches for birthday cake. It came in a big pink cardboard box, and Mom usually took me to Costco a few weeks before to pick it out.
Even back then, I generally selected a chocolate sheet cake with extra sugary chocolate buttercream frosting, and the bakery scripted “Happy birthday, Amy!” across the top. (I’ve been a chocoholic my whole life!) Sometimes Mom even let me pick out an “upgrade” after flipping through the binder of cake designs, which meant the bakery added a few pastel pink frosting roses, colorful sprinkles around the piped frosting border of the sheet cake, and maybe even two or three plastic Disney figurines on top.
As the birthday girl, my parents let me eat whichever slice I wanted at the pool… But that was nearly impossible to pick! Should I ask for the corner piece with the most frosting ruffles? The one with a buttercream rose? The slice with my name on it??
Thankfully, we normally ended up with some leftover cake, so I could usually eat my second choice for an after dinner dessert the next day… And I thoroughly enjoyed every last crumb, even scraping all of the frosting and cake morsels off of my plate with my fork and licking the fork clean.
Yet as an adult, I find that most store-bought bakery chocolate cakes taste much too sweet… And even a little bland. Almost like watered down chocolate, rather than deep, rich, incredibly decadent chocolate cake.
So for my birthday this year (it’s tomorrow!), I’m baking myself a batch of these homemade Healthy One-Bowl Dark Chocolate Cupcakes! They taste unbelievably rich and decadent, each bite bursting with chocolate flavor. They’re also supremely moist with just a hint of brownie-like fudginess!
And unlike those store-bought cakes, these healthy chocolate cupcakes contain no refined flour or sugar… And they’re just 97 calories, including those gorgeous swirls of chocolate frosting on top!
Continue reading & see the rest! ›› Healthy One-Bowl Dark Chocolate Cupcakes
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