or, Kayla’s Alternative Chocolate Making Adventure…

So maybe you’ve decided that this Valentine’s Day you want to make your own chocolate treats a la organic or vegan style. Well, as someone who has never even baked a cake, I grew curious about the level of difficulty such a feat may entail. So, I scoured the internet for some fun, cool alternative chocolate sweet recipes.

• Just Joe Fudge: This is fudge that I have deemed, “To DIE for” and ideal for anyone who lives near a Trader Joe’s. The steps to making this fudge are really easy (again, first time fudge maker here) and you can use the store’s organic sweetened condensed milk. The recipe also calls for a pound Plus Semisweet Chocolate Bar (imported from Belgium!). Honestly, I’m not positive if the Semisweet Chocolate Bar is the equivalent to the Pound Plus 72% Chocolate Bar. But, I opted to use the 72% and I am very pleased with the dark chocolate taste. 

• Vegan Chocolate Cake: Moist! An actual moist vegan cake — I suspect it’s due to the apple sauce that this recipe calls for. Youtube actually has quite a few cool vegan chocolate recipes, but the videos by TheSweetestVegan are especially fun due to her bright, upbeat personality. If you like this video, be sure to check out her channel for other fantastic vegan how-tos. I actually gave some of this treat to a vegan friend of mine who concluded that this cake is perfect for a vegan. Garnish it with your own choice of berries.

• Superfood Chocolate Candy:  This is quite possibly the healthiest of the three, not to mention extremely fascinating. I had no idea what this treat would really taste like or even where to find the majority of the ingredients. It turns out that you can find your cacao powder (chocolate in its most raw form), coconut oil, hemp seed, agave nectar, among other intriguing ingredients at your local health store! I never knew that Super Supplements – that place that looked like it only sold vitamins- would be my go-to place for cacao. I also learned that using granulated form of stevia was an interesting mistake — I recommend the liquid or powdered type of stevia.

So go on ahead and give these sweet, simple, recipes a test-run. Make them with your friends! Make them with your sweetheart! I personally plan on baking another vegan cake. This time, I’ll venture out to make the vegan buttercream frosting.