Recipe: Healthier Fudgy Chocolate Cake

 As a child, I was never a cake fan. I'd pass up cakes at birthday parties, refuse cupcakes, turn up my nose at tea cakes and even skip eating my own birthday cake (unless it was an ice-cream cake without any frosting - why would you put frosting on an ice-cream cake?!).

As it turns out, I just didn't know what good cake was like! My Mum was never a baker so store bought and packet mix cakes were all I really knew of - and they're definitely not great. The icing tickles the back of your throat and your cheeks ache with sweetness.

That was, until I started baking...

Now, I'm all for cake - but we do cake a little bit differently in the SIL house. If you've been reading the blog for some time, you'd know that we like to create delicious recipes that are also way better for you. They don't taste healthy in the slightest, but your body will thank you for it. You may have already tried our Healthy Chocolate Cake recipe - but this new one is a little different - it's fudgier and chocolatier and doesn't use applesauce for those with fructose issues.

Our wedding cake was not a healthy cake. Gluten free, but not healthy at all. The bottom half was a rich fudgy chocolate cake with a ganache layer and it was so good. Now, we're all for indulgences every now and again - but we also like to enjoy cake and baked goods more than once in a blue moon - so I set to work on perfecting a fudgy chocolate cake recipe that was a helluvalot better for you.

When Jesse took his first bite of this cake, put it down on the plate and rushed over to kiss me, I knew I'd done it. This cake is gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.

So this new Healthier Chocolate Cake may have just beaten our original Healthy Chocolate Cake Recipe. It's totally different and a little more indulgent, but another go-to recipe nonetheless. We also know that many SIL readers are looking for Fructose Free Healthy Chocolate Cake Recipes - so this one is for you!

Think of it as a Healthy cross between a Chocolate Snack Cake Recipe, Chocolate Sheet Cake Recipe and the Sara Lee Chocolate Cake Recipe and then you have this Healthier Chocolate Fudge Cake. I know what you're thinking - it sounds delicious - and it is, so let;s get onto the recipe!

Healthier Fudgy Chocolate Cake serves 12-16

gluten free, low fat, fructose friendly, one bowl recipe

100g butter (7 tbsp), slightly softened*

3/4 cup + 2 tbsp (220g) Greek yogurt 

1/4 cup (50g) unrefined cane sugar/brown sugar** (see notes)

2 large eggs (120g)

1 tbsp vanilla extract 
Pinch of salt

3/4 cup (65g) unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup (90g) gluten free self raising flour/plain flour***

1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F

Grease and/or line a baking dish - we used an 8x8" pan but have also baked this cake sheet cake style in a 8x12" pan - you can bake it in cupcakes or whatever shape you like, just alter your baking times and keep an eye on your oven!
With an electric mixer, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy (it'll take about a minute) and then add in your yogurt, eggs, vanilla and salt, scraping down the sides of the bowl to mix everything together.
 If your eggs are really cold, it will make the butter mixture look lumpy but don't panic!
Sift in your cocoa powder, flour and baking powder and mix until just combined.
Pour you mixture into your baking pan and spread the mixture out evenly.
Bake for 15-35 minutes, depending on the size of your cake. Keep an eye on your oven and take the cake out when it's cooked all the way through and a skewer inserted into the cake removes clean.
Feel free to top the cake with chocolate frosting (here's one of our Healthy Chocolate Frosting Recipes) or eat it as is - we like it its own!

Notes:

*Please don't be afraid of the fat in this recipe, loves, it's still a lighter, low fat cake and it is SO delicious. Trust me on this one!

***We don't like things too sweet in the SIL House so 1/4C sugar was perfect for Jesse and I, however, SIL Mama said others mightn't find it sweet enough. If you prefer a sweeter cake, increase the sugar to between 1/2 cup and 3/4 cup.

**When testing this recipe, we liked the results better with GF Self Raising Flour, however, it works perfectly fine with plain flour too - SR Flour just gives the cake a lighter texture. When using gluten flours, stick to plain flour as the gluten will already give you a lighter cake.

You'll notice that we did this recipe in grams - that's because we've found a lot of variance with cocoa powders and different measurements so from now on, we'll be adding the weight measurement too for things like flour and solid objects. Let us know what you think of this change or whether there's something else we should do differently!

But tell me, what's your favourite kind of cake?
and what was the BEST birthday cake you ever had?
And don't worry, loves, creating a healthier ganache recipe is already on our post-Bali agenda!