I consider my sweet tooth an actual part of my personality. I own it, embrace it, and identify with it. I can’t live without sweets and eat them pretty regularly. In sum, you could say that I love sweets.

I also love fiber. I love anything whole wheat. In a perfect world, New York City pizza joints would only offer whole wheat crust, fast food places would make whole grain buns the standard, and pretzel stands on street corners would serve whole wheat soft pretzels. One can only dream.

Until this whole wheatopia exists, I take matters into my own hands and use whole wheat flour to bake items traditionally made with white flour. So far I’ve made whole wheat avocado cookies, whole wheat cinnamon chip muffins, and whole wheat no sugar added banana chocolate muffins. The recipe for that last one is in the works, as it was a total experiment and a bit of fail (although they were tasty with fruit jam). It’s fun to play around and swap out ingredients high in saturated fat or added sugar for ingredients that won’t raise your cholesterol or the number on your scale.

So far my biggest success has been this avocado cookie cake. I made it for my coworkers on the last day my summer internship and it was gone by afternoon. One person held a piece to save for later but still went back for seconds and thirds in the meantime (no judgment). I got to enjoy it myself! Unlike cookies, a cake can’t be tasted until it’s cut into for the first time, so I had to wait until work the next day to try it. That was the least fun part about making this cake.

But I did have it as a midmorning snack, and can I tell you? I didn’t feel bad eating it because of it’s whole grain, fiber, and healthy fat content! The recipe (and a REALLY fun Nutrition Facts comparison!) follows below. Cool thing about using avocado: it’s a one-to-one swap, so whatever amount of butter a recipe indicates, you can just use that amount of avocado.

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 3/4 cup RIPE avocado mashed
  • **Note:** trying to remove the pit of an unripe avocado is like trying to tear a cub away from it’s mama bear. In addition, trying to use a mixer on unripe avocado is like … it’s a big mess, and avocado flies everywhere, so just don’t do it.
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
  • **Note: I used regular whole wheat flour for mine, and a culinary nutritionist I worked with suggested pastry flour because she found the cake too dense. This type of flour exists. It’s milled more than regular flour, so it’s lighter, BUT IT’S ALSO WHOLE WHEAT. It was DESTINED to be used in wholesome, fibrous desserts.
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 to 1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (personal preference – I actually like the dough more than the chips, so I use less, and dark chocolate is stronger than semi-sweet)

Frosting: By the way – this frosting is the BOMB. You can’t tell it’s avocado at all, and it’s so rich and decadent. Good on top of cake or on it’s own.

• 1 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar (I found this to be SUPER sweet – next time I’m going to try 1 1/2 cups and see)
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup ripe avocado mashed
• 2 Tbsp soy milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch (abt 1/8 tsp) salt

Instructions:

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 9″ pie/cake pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, use a mixer to beat the avocado until it’s silky smooth (about 1 minute).
3. Add brown sugar and beat until creamy (about 1 minute).
4. Add in egg, yolk, and vanilla, and mix until well-combined.
5. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.
6. On low speed, mix in the wet ingredients until well-combined.
7. Add and evenly mix in the chocolate chips.
8. Put the cookie dough in the pan and press until flat. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Cake should be golden brown and a toothpick should come out mostly dry.

Frosting:

1. Mix confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder so there are no lumps.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the avocado until creamy.
3. Slowly add the sugar and cocoa powder mixture to the avocado and alternate with the soy milk and vanilla.
4. Taste and add a pinch of salt if the frosting is too sweet for your liking.
5. Using a piping bag (i.e., a plastic Zip-loc baggie into which I cut a tiny hole at the corner), pipe the frosting onto the cake in any which way you desire. Top with additional chips if you like. Sadly, I forgot to do so.

I adapted the recipe from a more typical cookie cake recipe, which uses butter, regular all-purpose flour, semi-sweet chips for the cake, and heavy cream and butter for the frosting. No one said that eating a slice of frosted cookie cake, healthier or not, was going to be low-calorie. But the comparison below is pretty cool. Take a look. The proof is in the pudding, or in, well, you know…

Avocado Skillet Cookie Cake à la Mode 🥑:

A serious crowd pleaser, made with the goodness of heart-healthy avocado and whole wheat pastry flour for added fiber and nutrients, and less saturated fat.

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