A clean eating chocolate chip cookie dough cake that is healthy and incredibly moist and delicious!
This cake is made with whole wheat flour, egg whites and no white refined sugar that actually looks and tastes amazing?
Can it be real?? YES and yes again!
You can't have a birthday without having cake at least in my opinion anyway. Recently, two days after Thanksgiving to be exact, I celebrate mine and this is what I made!
And.It,Was.Incredible.
No one could tell it was made with healthier ingredients. It certainly didn't lack in fudgy chocolatey taste!
There are a few steps to making this awesome healthy cake but well worth your time!
You start by making these little incredible cookie dough bites that you can sneak a taste if you like since they have no eggs in them!
After they freeze for about 15 minutes you plop them in your cake batter and then bake! Quite simple really.
Once cooled a bit you add some delicious chocolate syrup on top! A little Indulgence is needed for birthdays don't you think?
Nutrition Info (using brown rice syrup sweetener)
Servings: 12* Calories per serving: 350* Fat: 12g* Cholesterol: 5mg* Sodium: 338mg* Carbs: 58g* Fiber: 4g* Sugars: 29g* Protein: 8g* Points+: 10*
*Recipe Adapted from The Best Of CleanEating2.
Clean Eating Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- Chocolate Cake
- 2 ½ cups white whole wheat flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup plain Greek nonfat yogurt
- 1 cup brown rice syrup or honey
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon vanilla liquid stevia
- 12 egg whites or 1 ¾ cup 100% pasteurized egg whites
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- 2 tablespoons softened butter
- ¼ cup brown rice syrup or honey or sucanat
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup white whole wheat flour or whole wheat flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt
- ½ cup chocolate chips grain sweetened or 70% cocoa or higher, or sugar free if you can find them
- Chocolate Syrup
- ¼ cup chocolate chips
- 3 tablespoons milk 1%
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Make chocolate chip cookie dough first by combining all ingredients, except chocolate chips, in a bowl and mix well to combine.
- Once combined stir in chocolate chips. lay waxed paper onto a baking sheet and using a tablespoon drop cookie dough onto sheet. Make 16.
- Cover loosely with waxed paper and place in freezer for 10-15 minutes. Prepare chocolate cake: In a large bowl combine first 5 ingredients together. In a small bowl, mix together the next 6 ingredients.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until incorporated. Do not over mix.
- In a stand mixer or using an electric beater, beat egg whites until soft peaks form.
- Using a rubber spatula, fold egg whites into cake batter.
- Batter may be a little lumpy, do not over mix.
- Pour batter into a 10 inch spring form nonstick pan.
- Remove cookie dough from freezer and evenly drop into cake batter.
- Bake 45 minutes or until top of cake cracks and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for an hour on a wire rack.
- Once cooling, make the chocolate drizzle by set a small bowl over a pot of barely simmering water.
- Add chocolate and continue to stir until melted.
- Add milk until smooth.
- Drizzle over cake and let cool.
About Brenda
Brenda Bennett is a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, certified Sugar Detox Coach, certified Keto Coach and certified Life Coach. She has been Sugar Free & Refined carb free for 17 years and has written 2 cookbooks, Sugar-Free Mom, and Naturally Keto and her 3rd book The 30-Day Sugar Elimination Diet, is a four part program to help you detox from sugar, eliminate cravings, balance blood sugar and lose weight all while eating a delicious, nutrient dense whole foods. Meal plan offers two tracks to follow, low carb or keto. She is the founder of the Sugar Free Fresh Start course and Sugar Free Tribe weight loss membership. Learn more.
Cora
I am looking forward to making this for my daughter's birthday. I am having to eliminate white flour from our diet, what exactly is white whole wheat flour? Is it in the white flour family?
Brenda
It's actually just a very fine form of whole wheat flour, it is still not as processed and refined and white flour.
meredith
hi.. would GF flour be ok to substitute? for the Vanilla liquid stevia.. could i use vanilla extract and a packet of stevia? thank you !
Brenda
I've not tried this with gluten free flourbut please let me know if you do. Yes I think vanilla extract and stevia packets would work.
Gladine
I made this cake for my niece's birthday and, sorry to say, it does not taste good. Thank goodness we had ice cream with it, and I put buttercream iceing on top of it. It saved the cake in the end. The middle didn't cook though but I didn't want it to cook for much longer. I will not be making this again or giving this recipe to anyone.
Brenda
I'm sorry you had trouble with the cake not cooking in the middle. Did you make substitutions? Use a different sweetener?
Nancy
My family loves this cake. I can't eat it any more though as I am Gluten Intolerant. Any way to make this Gluten Free?
Nancy
Brenda
Still working on that recipe.
Victoria Olson
Please consider replacing the brown rice syrup with the honey mentioned. Brown rice syrup is a risky choice. Does your bottle say it's been tested for arsenic?
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/arsenic-organics-rice/story?id=15642428
No grains allowed in my house, I will experiment with nut flour replacements on this, tho.
Kay
Delicious cake Brenda! My daughter wanted a healthy cake for her birthday and she said it hit the mark. The only thing was the center did not bake all the way and was like a molten cake. Baked it at 375 for 40 min in a convection oven and the outside was getting very dry looking and it seemed the inside was done. My springform is a 9" instead of a 10" so maybe it was too thick but she loved it anyway!!! Thanks!
Dawn Burton
Sorry...forgot one question...you used cocoa powder, would raw cacao powder work as well or do you think it'd change the flavor considerably? Thanks :).
Brenda
I've not used raw cacao powder much so I wouldn't know about taste and texture difference.
Dawn Burton
Hi! Looking forward to trying this cake! May I ask what chocolate chips you used? Sunspire grain-sweetened dark chocolate chips? Thanks :). Looks delicious!
Brenda
Yes that's the brand if you can find them otherwise just try to find choc chips with the highest amount of cocoa,70- 80%
rita bonita
I'm sorry, but I made this cake for my husband's birthday today, and even followed all the directions step by step, and it was AWFUL! It is definitely not a delicious clean treat....ugh...it was the dryest, most cardboard tasting cake we've ever had! So disappointed. Will not ever be making this again. I have made plenty of clean treats that really don't taste clean at all, but this one tasted way way way too healthy...well, what the layperson thinks "healthy" tastes like. I make clean food all the time, and it is really delicious, but this cake, no way. Sorry to be so blunt and honest, but we were both really excited when we saw the picture and the recipe, and were so disappointed on such a special day for my hubby :-(. He says..."That cake sucked!"
Brenda
Wow I'm really sorry you and hubby didn't enjoy the cake and I'm really shocked as well since I fed it to my entire Italian non clean eating family of 16 and everyone loved it. Did you use substitute anything in the recipe? What kind of chocolate chips did you use? Others beside myself have made this and loved it, you can read the review link back below as well as a comment above saying it came out awesome. Maybe the brown rice syrup as a sweetener isn't sweet enough for both of you.
Heather @ Sugar Dish Me
Hey! I'm Heather-- I help to admin Amazing Recipes where you submitted this gorgeous cake and I just had to come tell you how COMPLETELY AWESOME it is!!! I seriously needed to read the ingredient list to see it for myself! Totally amazing. Thank you for sharing such a super recipe!!
Brenda
Thanks so much Heather!
Jazmine
Hi I'm wanting to try this recipe for my dad's birthday and was wondering what could be substituted for the liquid stevia. I'm really looking forward to trying this, thank you for sharing!
Brenda
I'm sure you could substitute honey but I haven't tried it so not sure how much or how it would effect the texture of the cake.I've only made it once for my birthday as the recipe is. Sorry!
Annie
Hi.. question for you, can we use whole wheat flour instead of white WW flour for the cake ?
Brenda
I haven't tried but prefer not use to regular whole wheat for cakes as it is come out quite dense and heavy. Using whole wheat pastry flour would be a better alternative.
Amy D
We'd also appreciate any ideas to substitute for Greek yogurt. This sounds like a fabulous recipe for special occasions! Our daughter has dairy allergy though -- so we're wondering how we could adapt it. Also wondering...those yummy little cookie dough bites...could you bake them on their own another time (keep frozen for convenience)?
Thank you so much for all your recipes I look forward to seeing them every day!
Brenda
I would suggest subbing another yogurt, perhaps a coconut or soy kind. I haven't tried the cookie bites baked on their own, so not sure about that. Thank you!
chava
what can be substituted for Greek nonfat yogurt? ty
Lisa
Looks amazing! I live in a small town and can't often find the fantastic ingredients you use. Do you have any suggestion for a substitute for the brown rice syrup? Thanks!!
Brenda
Use honey to replace brown rice syrup. I purchase alot of my ingredients at iherb.com since it seems to be the cheapest online and I have a discount code you can use: YAJ035.
Laura @ Mommy Run Fast
Looks amazing- just pinned. Can't wait to try it!
Mallika Garg
Thanks Brenda for this wonderful recipe! I tried it today! https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151389371262577&set=a.10150366598117577.399562.721332576&type=1&theater¬if_t=photo_comment
Came out great! that's my first ever cake that I baked from the start all by myself!!
I love all your recipes!
Brenda
Glad you liked it!
Michelle
I was so thrilled to see this. I have been craving chocolate cake for months now and looks like I will be able to have a slice now 🙂 A couple of questions, I live in okinawa, Japan and it is hard to find a lot of stuff here. For example I can not happen to find 70% or more cocoa chocolate chips. I have only 60% cocoa chocolate chips or bars that are 72%. Would you recommend I use the chips or chop the bar and use that instead? Also I do not have vanilla liquid stevia. I only have the stevia packets and the dark chocolate liquid stevia, which one should I use? Or would you reccomend I just use regular vanilla? Thank you!
Brenda
You're welcome! It is really your preference on the chocolate chips, the 72% bar is better for you but either way you aren't using much chocolate chips so it might be easier to just use the ones you have. You can most definitely use the chocolate liquid in place of the vanilla liquid I suggested.
Amy
I am looking for recipes to help cut out the white refined sugar but not just for clean eating, this is for my son who shows some signs of not being able to focus at school, possibly add, or something similar is going on. After talking with several moms in similar situations, and the pediatrician and a counselor, I keep hearing remove the sugar, gluten, etc. We use Stevia in the raw, but your recipe says it has 29g of sugar per serving... how do you distinguish between sugars that can lead to lack of focus and hyperactivity and which ones do not?
Brenda
Hi Amy, this is an indulgent recipe using brown rice syrup. If you look at other recipes I have that use stevia and fruits to sweeten you will find the sugars to be less than in this cake. When you look at the total grams of sugar you should look as to where they are coming from. If they are coming from fruit obviously which is natural sugars my guess would be for your son those would be more beneficial and not like sugars in packaged goods. Here's an article I wrote about the 3 refined sugar free sweeteners I use and why i use them, hope that helps! https://www.sugarfreemom.com/recipes/top-3-refined-sugar-free-sweeteners/
The Better Baker
Looks fabulous! Oh how I adore FUDGEY!! MMM good. Happy Belated Birthday. Mine was the 19th...we are November girls huh? =)
Brenda
thanks Marsha! Yep November babies!
Kim H
2 questions-what's the difference in using the 70% chips? Also can a bundt pan or regular cake pan be used if we don't have a spring pan?
Brenda
the 70% cocoa or higher is better for you, but more bitter as well, usually has less sugar in them but not always but health wise better to use higher cocoa %. And yes to the other pans, they would be fine. You would have to grease them, butter or spray them so that is why I used a springform so I wouldn't have to do that.
mgmama
This looks great! I'm bookmarking it for when I need (or want 🙂 to make a chocolate cake. Thanks for all your healthy options, They are great!
Brenda
You're welcome, thank you!
janel
Wow this looks incredibly delicious!
Brenda
thanks Janel!