Chocolate Gingerbread Cake Bars

Posted by Casey from The Mindful Hapa on Nov 9th 2021

A chocolaty twist on a classic holiday flavor.

We teamed up with Watkins and Casey, the creative mastermind behind The Mindful Hapa, to create a show stopping organic dessert this holiday season. These rich, gluten-free chocolate cake bars are so moist and full of our favorite warming spices. And with the delicious cream cheese frosting topped with a festive sprinkling of Watkins Red Decorating Sugar, these bars make dessert time a little more merry.

Ingredients:

Gingerbread Cake Bars

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup coconut sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp Watkins Organic Original Gourmet Baking Vanilla
½ cup unsulphured organic molasses
½ cup water
1 ½ cups gluten-free flour (must be 1:1 replacement flour)
¾ cup almond flour
1 tsp Watkins Organic Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Watkins Organic Ground Ginger
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1, 3oz bar, Theo Chocolate Pure 70% Dark Chocolate, chopped into small pieces
Watkins Red Decorating Sugar

Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz cream cheese (1 block) - dairy free if needed
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350F and line an 9”x9” square pan with parchment paper.
In a small bowl, whisk together molasses and water. Set aside.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together gf flour, almond flour, Watkins Organic Ground Cinnamon, Watkins Organic Ground Ginger, baking soda, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to beat together the butter and coconut sugar until creamed together.
Add in your eggs and Watkins Organic Original Gourmet Baking Vanilla and blend with a hand mixer until combined, scraping down sides as needed.
Add half of the flour mixture and half the molasses/water mixture and blend with the hand mixer until combined.
Add the remaining half of the flour mixture and the molasses/water mixture, and blend together again until just combined.
Fold in the chopped Theo Chocolate Pure 70% Dark Chocolate.
Pour cake batter into the parchment lined 9”x9” pan and use a spatula to spread in an even layer.
Bake at 350F for ~27-29minutes (mine took 28 minutes), or until a toothpick comes out mostly crumb free, edges have started to pull away from the sides, and the top of the cake bounces back to the touch. Let cool completely.
While the cake is cooling, make your frosting. To a large mixing bowl, add your cream cheese and powdered sugar and use a hand blender to mix together until smooth.
Top cooled cake with frosting and Watkins Natural Red Decorating Sugar before cutting into 12 slices. Enjoy!