Recipe for Healthy Chocolate Cake without refined sugar and flour
Today many people are talking about cutting down on fat and carbs, and the fitness centers are packed with people working out and trying to get in shape.
See also: The best Nordic recipes
We have several times said that it's sad to take some good food and replace a few ingredients with healthy choices. Most of the times you risk to replace some ingredients that was there for an important purpose - and by that changes the specific dish to something bad.
We believe that food should taste good, and if it's unhealthy we just eat less of it. The first time we came across this recipe for a healthy chocolate cake without sugar and flour we had our strong doubts whether it was any good. We have always thought a chocolate cake should at least contain sugar and flour - we couldn't be more wrong!
Read also: The best recipe for marzipan without sugar
This chocolate cake is so delicious! It has a wonderful taste, it's soft and moist exactly as a chocolate cake should be.
Healthy Chocolate cake Without the Word Healthy
The word healthy is a funny word to use in a sentence where the word cake is includes. Of cause compared to our broccoli salad it's wrong to use the word healthy.
However, compared to a regular chocolate cake this is a perfect word to use. If you are like us - don't get scared away because of this small word healthy. This is just a cake that doesn't have sugar of flour in it - it's simple and super delicious!
The Secret to make healthy cake
The secret in this recipe for a healthy chocolate cake is that the sugar and flour is replaced with dates, bananas and coconut oil. These ingredients brings the sweetness and softness into the cake which is normally the sugar and flour's main purpose.
See also: Recipe for Danish Butter Cookies
Of course the cake is not completely sugar free - the dark chocolate does contain some sugar but not in the same amount compared to a regular cake. We have used dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 70 % which has a rich and strong chocolate taste.
If you are trying to cut down on sugar and gluten we definitely think you should try out this healthier chocolate cake. If you are looking for a completely regular chocolate cake we can also recommend this one - it's also moist and super delicious.
Ingredients
- 125 g nuts (use what you have)
- 150 g dark chocolate
- 50 g coconut flakes
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 75 g coconut oil
- 1 dl milk
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 5 dates
- 2 ripe bananas (or frozen if you have any)
- 2 eggs
- pinch of salt
- Topping
- 50 g mixed nuts
- 25 g coconut flour or large coconut flakes/chips
Instructions
- Use a blender to blend 50 g (2 oz) of the nuts into fine nut flour/powder.
- Coarsely chop the last 75 g (2.5 oz) of the nuts and the chocolate.
- Mix the nut flour, chopped nuts, coconut flakes, chopped chocolate, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt in a large bowl.
- Remove the stones from the dates and blend them together with the bananas in a blender.
- Melt the coconut oil a little at low heat and pour it in the date/bananas mixture together with milk, eggs and vanilla essence. Mix it well.
- Pour the date/banana mixture in the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix it all well.
- Pour the cake batter in an oven proof dish or similar which is lined with baking/parchment paper. We used a 20x25 cm (8x10 inch) pan.
- Decorate the cake with chopped nuts and some coconut flakes/chips.
- Bake the cake at 170 C (330 F) for about 40-45 minutes.
Amy
This cake looks so rich and delicious. I must try!
Kim Nielsen
Thank you very much. It's really good :-)
Jasmin
Kim and Louise,
this chocolate cake looks delicious,
I really like it has no sugar - we could enjoy in it without
any guilt ;)
Kim Nielsen
Hi Jasmin, It's really good - we personally can't taste that it doesn't have any sugar or flour in it. :-)
Annonymous
Hey is there any way to replace bananas with anything else?
Kim Nielsen
Hi - unfortunately, I can't come up with an ingredient to replace the bananas. The bananas gives texture and moist to the cake. It is not the taste of the bananas we are looking for in this recipe :-) Regards Kim (NordicFoodLiving.com)
Rose
What about apple purée ?
András
Avocado perhaps
Loreta
What size pan did you bake it in? 8x8?
Louise Dam
Hi. Sorry, we've forgot to write the pan size. We used a 8x10 inch. But I believe you can use a 8x8.
Regards Louise
holly
Hiya. Is it fresh dates or are dried dates OK? Thanks :-D
Louise Dam
Hi Holly. Actually it doesn't say on the box. They are not fresh and not completely dried, so I believe they are called semi dried dates. You can see the dates at the first picture.
Miss Polkadot
Wow, your cake looks amazing. Nobody would guess it's sugar- and flour-free from just looking at it. I don't eat eggs so likely won't try it but maybe share the recipe with some friends.
Louise Dam
Thank you so much! We appreaciate that :-)
Smita
Each egg in the cake could easily be replaced with 1 tablespoon of ground flax seed with 3 tablespoons of water,when this mix is set aside while you prepare other ingredients, it turns out to be the same consistency of whisked eggs. Hope this helps.
Melissa
This definitely helps :) Thankyou. I'll be doing the egg free version- no eggs, sugar or flour! It looks delish
Shenae
Hi would really love to make this but i have no dates-will it be alright without them??
Louise Dam
The dates are used in the cake as sweetener. Maybe you can use some honey instead. But I'm not sure.
Lisa
Looks delish! Any ideas of nutritional info? Carbs? Calories? Fiber?
Louise Dam
Sorry, I haven't calculated it. But I know there are a lot of free sites where you can make these calculations. If you do - please give us the results :-)
Julia
Made it for my brothers birthday. Everyone loved it!
Louise Dam
Lovely to hear! :-)
Donna Knipp
What kind of dark chocolate did you use -- did it have any sweetener in it?
Thanks for any help on this. Also, I can't eat bananas but often substitute other fruits for bananas in various recipes.
In baking, people seem to favor applesauce as a substitute for bananas. Any thoughts on how that might work?
If you think applesauce might be too runny, I have also used papaya in place of bananas for smoothie recipes, Would something like papayas work better here? .
many thanks.
Louise Dam
I used a 70 % chocolate. But use one with as high a cocoa procent as possible.
Donna Knipp
Thanks. So you used the kind of dark chocolate that people can eat by itself -- the chocolate bars that we all enjoy eating as snacks? There is also another kind chocolate, called baking chocolate, that doesn't have any sweetener in it, and you couldn't eat it on its own.
I guess you weren't using baking chocolate -- right?
thx.
LoritheRD
Not saying this doesn't sound like a delicious recipe but calling this cake "sugar free" is a bit deceptive. Saying "no additional sugar added" would be more accurate because both bananas and dates have a good amount of sugar in them. Even though it is natural sugar and not refined sugar it may still be too much for someone who is on a sugar restricted diet. Like omeone with diabetes for instance. Just as a guide for anyone wondering, 1 cup of mashed bananas ( about 1 med banana) has
approx 28 grams of sugar and 1 cup of coarsely chopped dates has approx. 93 grams of sugar. Just don't want anyone to think this is a sugar free food that can be eaten indiscriminately.
Louise Dam
Hi, you're right. There is no added sugar in the recipe. But of course there are some fruit sugar.
Sonia
This looks great. How long would it keep before eating?
Thanks
Louise Dam
A couple of days I think :-)
Laura
Do we need to pre heat the oven?
Kim Nielsen
It's a good idea to pre-heat but it is not necessary. I'll will not make a big difference :-)
Gozde
Hey,
Can we replace nuts with oat flour ? I am allergic to nuts but this cakes so yummy :)
Gozde
I meant just the portion we add into to cake
Louise Dam
I haven't tried it. But I would think it is possible.
Sarah
Hello
Kim Nielsen
Hello Sarah :)
Sarah
Actually i commented but for some reason it didn't go through.
I made this twice already. First time i followed the recipe 98%, I used 90% chocolate and semi sweet chocolate chips. The taste was ok, not as sweet as i like and i didnt like the texture...crunch from the nuts and the coconut was too much for me. I also wasn't fond of the banana taste. However my husband loved it
So i made it again. I left out the bananas and subbed 25g coconut flakes for ap flour. I left the bananas out and added 5 more dates to make it sweeter. I also used a bit butter (15g) and 60g coconut oil instead of all coconut oil. I wasn't trying to go gluten free i just wanted a recipe that was sugar free.
So the result : it was still good, i liked it better actually. Just wanted to share my epxerience and thank you for the recipe, it was a good base for a sugar free recipe and i found that it worked well even with a few substitutions.
Olivia Lafferty
I am not a fan of coconut, would it be okay to leave the coconut flakes out?
Kim Nielsen
Hi Olivia. I have not tried to leave out the coconut flakes. However, I thing it is possible but then you would need to add a little extra nuts to compensate. I would like to know how it turns out if you try :-)
Regards Kim
HELEN
COULD THIS CAKE MADE IN VANILLA I DO NOT LIKE CHOCOLATE? THANX, MS.HELEN
Kim Nielsen
Hi Helen. I've never this this specific recipe only in vanilla. However, I am quite sure if you just leave out the cocoa and chocolate it is still great. If you try I would like to know if it works out good.
Dar
Hi, I made this cake, this passed weekend, and it was good. I cooked for 50 minutes, and it was a little gooey in the middle. I did put it in fridge, and it was even better. Thank you. So, at 45 minutes baking cake, should it be gooey?
Gaila
Can you please tell me how much milk? It says 1dl (0.5 Cup) but I don't understand.
Kim Nielsen
Hi Gaila.
1 dl = 1 deciliter = 1/2 US cups. It is a volumen measurement. You can also convert this into weight which in this case would be 50 grams of milk
Elizabeth George
This recipe is just INCREDIBLE
Kim Nielsen
Thanks :-)
Richa
Can we replace the coconut oil with anything else?
Kim Nielsen
Maybe you can use peanut or macadamia oil. I have never tried it but it is worth the test.
Lloyd
Thanks for this recipe, looks delicious!
Would it be ok to substitute cows milk for soy milk?
Kim Nielsen
You are welcome. I haven't tried substituting the cow milk with soy milk. However, I can't see why that shouldn't work. I think you should give it a try :-) You can always let us know in the comment section how it turns out.
Vicki
I have just made this chocolate cake and it is a real winner. Thankyou for sharing this recipe.
Kim Nielsen
You are welcome. I'm happy that you like the recipe :-)
babumjane
i WOULD LOVE TO MAKE THIS BUT DON'T KNOW HOW TO COOK WITH GRAM COUNTING
Kim Nielsen
If you go to the recipe there is a small blue button named "US Customary" if you click that you will get the US units. Let me know if you can't find it.
Miranda McArthur
Hoping to make this soon but can you tell me whether the ‘coconut flakes’ you mention are what we in the UK call dessicated coconut - that is dried grated coconut? Here flakes describes larger pieces and are not easy to find.
Thanks
Kim Nielsen
If you take a look at the first picture after the recipe, then you can see the coconut flakes (coconut shredded) at the left side in the bowl. I hope that you can find them in the UK.
Nick
Delicious cake, very happy with my results.
Kim Nielsen
I'm happy that you like the recipe :-) Regards Kim (NordicFoodLiving.com)
HT
This is so clever, and super yummy. We love it. Tried two times now. Thanks very much. 👍👍
MBG
Made half this cake to celebrate my little munchkin's 18 month birthday, and he absolutely loved it! Just watching him enjoy it, licking his lips, applauding the cake, going to town on it made it worthwhile! That too with 72% dark chocolate. The shredded coconut was a bit chewy, so might replace it with dessicated coconut or maybe (probably!) leave it out altogether next time. But regardless, this will forever remain a very special cake to me! 💛
Kim Nielsen
Thanks for your comment. I'm happy that you and your kid like the cake. It is also one of my favorite cakes :-) Regards Kim (NordicFoodLiving.com)