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 says
October 26, 2014 at 1:27 amThis cake looks so rich and delicious. I must try!
Kim Nielsen says
October 26, 2014 at 8:05 amThank you very much. It’s really good :-)
Jasmin says
October 26, 2014 at 7:14 amKim and Louise,
this chocolate cake looks delicious,
I really like it has no sugar – we could enjoy in it without
any guilt ;)
Kim Nielsen says
October 26, 2014 at 8:10 amHi Jasmin, It’s really good – we personally can’t taste that it doesn’t have any sugar or flour in it. :-)
Loreta says
October 26, 2014 at 2:06 pmWhat size pan did you bake it in? 8×8?
Louise Dam says
October 26, 2014 at 2:24 pmHi. Sorry, we’ve forgot to write the pan size. We used a 8×10 inch. But I believe you can use a 8×8.
Regards Louise
holly says
November 3, 2014 at 8:25 amHiya. Is it fresh dates or are dried dates OK? Thanks :-D
Louise Dam says
November 3, 2014 at 7:04 pmHi 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 says
August 24, 2015 at 2:52 pmWow, 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 says
August 24, 2015 at 6:26 pmThank you so much! We appreaciate that :-)
Smita says
January 5, 2017 at 8:32 amEach 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 says
December 3, 2018 at 12:20 amThis definitely helps :) Thankyou. I’ll be doing the egg free version- no eggs, sugar or flour! It looks delish
Shenae says
November 10, 2015 at 9:16 pmHi would really love to make this but i have no dates-will it be alright without them??
Louise Dam says
November 10, 2015 at 9:23 pmThe dates are used in the cake as sweetener. Maybe you can use some honey instead. But I’m not sure.
Lisa says
December 13, 2015 at 12:12 amLooks delish! Any ideas of nutritional info? Carbs? Calories? Fiber?
Louise Dam says
December 14, 2015 at 9:21 pmSorry, 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 says
February 19, 2016 at 11:00 pmMade it for my brothers birthday. Everyone loved it!
Louise Dam says
February 21, 2016 at 11:38 amLovely to hear! :-)
Donna Knipp says
February 26, 2016 at 6:29 pmWhat 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 says
February 28, 2016 at 2:15 pmI used a 70 % chocolate. But use one with as high a cocoa procent as possible.
Donna Knipp says
March 1, 2016 at 4:44 amThanks. 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 says
March 8, 2016 at 5:59 amNot 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 says
March 12, 2016 at 10:59 pmHi, you’re right. There is no added sugar in the recipe. But of course there are some fruit sugar.
Sonia says
April 1, 2016 at 9:45 pmThis looks great. How long would it keep before eating?
Thanks
Louise Dam says
April 19, 2016 at 7:35 pmA couple of days I think :-)
Laura says
September 28, 2016 at 5:13 pmDo we need to pre heat the oven?
Kim Nielsen says
September 28, 2016 at 5:52 pmIt’s a good idea to pre-heat but it is not necessary. I’ll will not make a big difference :-)
Gozde says
April 4, 2016 at 3:03 pmHey,
Can we replace nuts with oat flour ? I am allergic to nuts but this cakes so yummy :)
Gozde says
April 4, 2016 at 3:03 pmI meant just the portion we add into to cake
Louise Dam says
May 23, 2016 at 1:13 pmI haven’t tried it. But I would think it is possible.
Sarah says
July 25, 2016 at 12:28 pmHello
Kim Nielsen says
August 3, 2016 at 12:42 pmHello Sarah :)
Sarah says
August 10, 2016 at 10:50 pmActually 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 says
August 31, 2016 at 1:11 amI am not a fan of coconut, would it be okay to leave the coconut flakes out?
Kim Nielsen says
August 31, 2016 at 4:41 amHi 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 says
January 4, 2017 at 4:30 pmCOULD THIS CAKE MADE IN VANILLA I DO NOT LIKE CHOCOLATE? THANX, MS.HELEN
Kim Nielsen says
January 4, 2017 at 4:58 pmHi 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 says
October 17, 2017 at 9:22 pmHi, 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 says
March 7, 2018 at 11:33 pmCan you please tell me how much milk? It says 1dl (0.5 Cup) but I don’t understand.
Kim Nielsen says
March 11, 2018 at 4:02 pmHi 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 says
May 18, 2018 at 10:17 amThis recipe is just INCREDIBLE
Kim Nielsen says
May 22, 2018 at 7:16 amThanks :-)
Richa says
July 25, 2018 at 11:04 amCan we replace the coconut oil with anything else?
Kim Nielsen says
July 31, 2018 at 6:32 amMaybe you can use peanut or macadamia oil. I have never tried it but it is worth the test.
Lloyd says
August 4, 2018 at 1:08 amThanks for this recipe, looks delicious!
Would it be ok to substitute cows milk for soy milk?
Kim Nielsen says
August 4, 2018 at 4:20 pmYou 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.