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If you want a snack cake to satisfy your chocolate craving without taking a toll on your waistline this is the recipe for you. I love it so much I make it nearly every week to keep my sugar craving in check.
If you keep a healthy stocked pantry you probably have a lot of these things on hand already but may need one or two items to get there. Worry not, if you do have to buy them you will have enough to make many more snack cakes in the future.
This is gluten free, tender, and who would guess there is some actual nutritional value in it? The recipe is written as low sugar but you can adjust to your taste and calorie allowance.
This cake is a single round layer so it won’t be something you’re serving at a party but it’s perfect just for you to enjoy day to day at home.
You may like the 10 best low calorie desserts for weight loss.
The cake gets it’s lift from yogurt and baking soda. When they combine and bake it causes a lovely rise. This means that oven has to be hot and ready as soon as you have your batter mixed.
The goods:
- 50 grams plain pumpkin puree (I freeze what’s left for the next few cakes)
- Pistachio syrup (I use this brand and can’t guarantee flavor results with a different one)- optional
- 180 gr nonfat greek yogurt (you can use higher fat for a slight calorie increase)
- 80 gr unsweet almond milk
- 25 gr black cocoa powder (I use this brand and also have had good luck with the King Arthur brand – I don’t recommend hershey’s dark)
- 25 gr regular cocoa powder
- 1 large egg
- pinch of non iodized salt, like sea salt or kosher salt
- 2 Tbsp sugar plus no calorie sweetener of your choice to taste
- 65 gr oats ground in a coffee grinder or small blender to get it very fine like flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
a single 8″ or 9″ round cake pan
I suggest using a kitchen scale, put the bowl on it and tare it out after each addition and you won’t need to measure things in cups and spoons. Before you get to baking get your oven on and heating up. It will have to be ready and steady heat when you get your pan in there.
Let’s talk cocoa for a paragraph. Black cocoa in particular. You know it from a famous cookie called the oreo. Black cocoa is what gives it that deep chocolate flavor without being too sweet. I first got some to make black bread and now I find myself using it in hot cocoa, all my cakes, yogurt, etc. It must be mixed with regular cocoa. It isn’t used straight 100%. I find the Hershey’s brand doesn’t deliver on the flavor that the higher end types do. Also , because most likely it will come in a bag, Keep some or all of it in a jar because cleaning up cocoa powder when it spills is worse than really anything else. It smears terribly and can be hard to get off of grout in your tile, shoes, and whatever else it settles on to. I keep it in a mason jar.
Now, let’s make this skinny delicious cake!
PREHEAT OVEN TO 320 F.
Put the pumpkin, yogurt and milk in a bowl and heat it up in the microwave or you can do it on the stove and use that as your mixing bowl just be sure it’s cool before going back on the scale or put a hand towel between the pan and the scale. Give it just a full minute to warm gently. Not boiling. Warm to the touch. You’re going to bloom the cocoa powders in it.
After thoroughly combined add in the egg, pistachio syrup, sugar and no calorie sweetener to taste. It should not be overly sweet or it will compete with the richness of the cocoa flavor.
Prepare your baking pan with nonstick spray, parchment round on the bottom if desired. It is 2021 I use silicone cake pans and spray is all that is needed. No one in this day and age need suffer sticking cakes! Remember to always put your silicone baking pans on flat metal sheets so they don’t flop around.
Finally add in the baking soda and ground oats and stir thoroughly to combine using a rubber spatula so you get all the way into the bottom and sides. There is no gluten in this so you don’t have to worry about over mixing.
How to make non fat whipped cream
Pour batter into pan and put into the oven. set timer to 30-35 minutes. Once out of the oven let the pan sit for about 5-10 minutes then invert onto a rack and cool at least 30 minutes before frosting (if desired). It is a high moisture cake and will let off some steam.
The cake as is will be about 70 calories for 1/10th of a slice.
Gilding the lily
Add a few more calories with a topping:
- 2 Tbsp coconut oil (must be coconut oil because it firms up when cooled
- 1 Tbsp each dark and regular cocoa
- 2 Tbsp greek yogurt
- dash pistachio syrup
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- extra sweetner if needed
- dash vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp milk
Melt oil with sugar and cocoas stirring until smooth. Then add in remaining ingredients and stir more til smooth. If it looks curdled it’s ok keep stirring as it will smooth out. Once cooled a bit spread over cooled cake.
Cover and keep in fridge if it won’t be eaten in 3 days.
