Chocolate Cake (with special-specials!)

Here are the Weebert house, we have two very finicky boys. And boy, if you want to torture these children, put veggies in front of them. Yikes. As a veggie-loving mom, I'm always looking for ways to get the fruits and veggies in the kids without epic battles, or tears (either mine or theirs). This cake is just the ticket.

Chocolate Cake

2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/3 cups sugar (may be honey or agave, if you are going all-in healthy)
1/4 cup margarine
2/3 cups baking cocoa
1 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/4 cup water (this is in addition to the water set forth above)
1 cup blueberries
4 huge handfuls of spinach (about 4-6 ounces of spinach)
1 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

Place 1/4 cup water, blueberries and spinach in a medium pan (covered), over medium-low heat for 5-7 minutes. Stir periodically while cooking. Blueberries should burst and spinach should wilt. Take off heat.  Using an immersion blender, completely blend up the spinach-blueberry "sauce."

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Place spinach-blueberry sauce in a mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients (except the chocolate chips, if you are using them). Mix for 30 seconds, and then scrape down bowl. Mix for another 2-3 minutes.

Pour cake batter into a greased 13 by 9 by 2 pan. We like chocolate chips instead of frosting (sometimes!), so I put the chocolate chips on top of the cake batter at this point. Bake for 35 -40 minutes.

The cake looks a bit darker than a standard chocolate cake (due to the darkness of the spinach-blueberry sauce), but if you were to ice this darling cake with frosting, no one would be the wiser. I taste a very faint hint of blueberry, but the boys didn't recognize it at all. ;-)