100 cal, 15C/5F/2P/5S.
A stimulant-free NOT-chocolate cake that is whole wheat and low sugar, naturally moistened and sweetened with pumpkin!
We were invited to a toddler birthday party last weekend so I had to bring something with my own healthy-dessert-blogger touch. I had an open can of pumpkin puree (tis the season) and a lot of fake chocolate lying around (What is fake chocolate you say? It’s carob!) This little chocolate cake was born.
It’s catered toward kiddos because it’s not actual chocolate cake. It’s caffeine-free, dairy-free, very-low-sugar, can be nut-free if you prefer. You know kids always being allergic to stuff, it can be tricky to make a crowd pleaser (and by crowd I mean parents of course!) but this cake seemed to fit the bill! My friend who’s a professional baker said she liked it and that it was surprisingly moist, yay ❤
Even though I called it “for kids” I won’t mind if you make this for yourself and enjoy a little low sugar treat for your breakfasts/snacks. It’s not dessert-sweet as written so if you’d like to add more sweetness I’d recommend adding a couple of more tbsp granulated sugar (coconut sugar for example).
Ingredients:
- 1 egg lightly beaten
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (240 g)
- 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey (84 g)
- 2 tbsp oil (I use avocado oil) (28 g)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or any wheat flour) (120 g)
- 1/2 cup carob (or cocoa) powder (48 g)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
Frosting:
- 1/4 cup carob chips (or semisweet chocolate chips) (60 g)
- 2 tbsp nut or seed butter (I used almond butter in this one) (32 g)
Makes 16 squares. Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8×8 baking dish with parchment. Blend together egg, pumpkin, syrup, oil, vanilla. Whisk together flour, carob powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Mix the two until just combined (do not overmix). Transfer to the pan and bake for 25-30 minutes until a knife inserted comes out mostly clean.
While the cake is cooling melt together carob chips and nut butter (I simply use the microwave in short increments – don’t burn that carob). Frost the cooled cake and refrigerate to let the frosting set. It will be crackly straight out of the fridge but will soften as the cake comes to room temperature. So maybe don’t do what I did and wait a little before you slice it 🙂 Still loved it though!
Hope you make this for the littles in your life (or yourselves) and tag me on instagram if you do! ❤
Plenty Sweet 