Both my brother in-law and mother in-law here in the US are Type II diabetics and my younger sister in Australia is Type I diabetic, along with myself having had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant with my daughter.
Unfortunately we do all have a sweet tooth and for this reason, I find I am often tweaking or altering recipes for desserts and similar to see how they turn out and if they pass the family ‘taste test’ as lower sugar or no added sugar versions of the original recipes.
One of my family’s favorite chocolate cakes is the Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate, Chocolate Cake. It’s rich, lush and moist with a texture similar to mud cake but not quite so ‘dense’; and it is oh sooooooo laden with sugar!
So, I thought I would set about seeing how this would cook up as a no-added sugar variation and if I could keep it tasting just as wonderfully decadent yet a little more diabetic friendly. The final result passed the BIL and MIL taste test along with my husband also stating ‘it tastes great!’ (and he is picky with cakes, cookies, desserts and similar).
Recipe for Wickedly Delicious No Added Sugar Rich Chocolate Cake
Cake Ingredients:
- 2C Splenda
- 1-3/4C plain flour
- 3/4C cocoa
- 1- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
- 2 eggs
- 1C milk
- 1/2C vegetable oil
- 1C boiling water
- 1/4C sugar free raspberry preserves (for filling)
Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 sachet Dream Whip
- 1-1/2C milk
- 1 package chocolate sugar free instant pudding/pie mix
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Grease and flour two 9″ round cake tins.
- Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla extract.
- Bat on medium speed for 2 minutes
- Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin/runny).
- Pour into pans in roughly equal amounts.
- Bake 30-35mins or until skewer comes out clean.
- Cool in pans for 10-15mins before turning out onto cooling rack.
- When the cake(s) are completely cooled, spread the sugar free preserves onto the top of one of the cakes.
- Place the other cake on top of the bottom one, to create a ‘sandwich’.
- Pour the chilled milk into a medium sized bowl.
- Add the sachet of Dream Whip and sachet of sugar free instant pudding/pie mix.
- Beat on medium speed until combined.
- Then beat on high speed for 4-6 minutes, until soft peaks begin to form from the mixture.
- Use this mixture to ‘ice’ the cake.
- Place into the fridge for an hour or so, to chill before serving.
Notes: This cake rises a lot, however it does also often collapse back in on itself a little too as it cools. I ended up making two seperate cakes, one in a silicon fluted pan, the other in a glass bar dish. With the cake in the glass bar dish, I spread that with just the frosting mix, and served it as a dessert at the dinner table. I didn’t have any on hand at the time, however if you make the cake in a fluted tin, fill the center hole with fresh raspberries prior to serving. You can evidently make a lower fat variety by omitting the vegetable oil in the cake and adding another sachet of dream whip to the dry ingredients + 2 extra eggs in with the wet ingredients, however I’m not sure how this would affect the texture/taste of the cake or if it even works, as I am yet to try it.
Enjoy! Whims ;-)
