All-Fruit Chocolate Frosting

This frosting is rich, creamy, and very, very chocolatey. It ranges from slightly sweet to moderately sweet, depending on the ripeness of the banana (riper bananas make sweeter frosting). It keeps well in the fridge for a long time and still has a creamy, easy-to-spread texture when it's cold. Obviously it can be used as frosting for cakes and cupcakes, but I've also found that it's delicious when served as a dip or topping for fresh fruit.

The best aspect of this recipe is that it's so healthy, if you break down and start shoveling frosting into your mouth with a spoon (and let's be honest, everyone does this at one point or another), that's perfectly ok! It's all fruit, so it's actually healthy to pig out a bit on this stuff.

This Recipe's Health Goodness:

• It's entirely sugar-free AND sweetener-free--no refined sugars of any kind, no artificial sweeteners.
• It's extremely high in dietary fiber (especially compared to typical frostings)
• It's low in unhealthy fats (especially compared to typical frostings)
• It contains avocado, a much-celebrated "superfood" 
• It's contains lots of cocoa powder, which is an antioxidant-rich "superfood"
• It's vegan!

INGREDIENTS:

1 ripe to overripe banana

2 tbs cocoa powder 

1 ripe avocado 

(I know, it sounds crazy, but it works!)

1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

1 tsp lemon juice (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

If you have a food processor or a blender, throw in all the ingredients and thoroughly blend them.

But, if you don't have a food processor or blender:

STEP 1:

Cream the avocado flesh. You can do this using a mixer, or you can use a whisk or fork and do it by hand. 

This is the most important step!

It is crucial that the avocado be thoroughly creamed, with a smooth texture like mayonaise or yogurt. Unblended avocado chunks will ruin both the texture and the taste of the frosting.

STEP 2:

Mash in the banana. 

This step is less important, but try to make sure the banana is also thoroughly mashed.

STEP 3:

Mix the creamed avocado, mashed banana and other ingredients. 

NOTA BENE: I will upload pictures the next time I make this recipe.