This Sugar Free, Low Carb, Chocolate Crazy Cake needs NO eggs, NO butter and No milk!
Crazy Cake
Have you ever heard of the Crazy cake, Wacky cake or Depression Cake before? It was a cake made during the Great Depression of the 1930's when there was a lack of eggs, butter and milk. They had to get pretty creative and surprisingly the Crazy Cake is one of the best cakes even without those ingredients! It's actually the most perfect allergy friendly cake I've ever seen!
I first saw the Chocolate Crazy Cake recipe circulating on Facebook from the Sweet Little Blue Bird website but made with white flour and white sugar so I knew I would want to remake it for myself and all of you!
I've been asked so many times to make this sugar free and gluten free and now I've finally done it and made it low carb and nut free too!
Nut Free Keto Chocolate Cake
I was even surprised by how utterly decadent, moist and fudgey this cake was! The white vinegar and baking soda allow it to rise perfectly.
Many of you know my youngest has a tree nut allergy so I opted to make this cake with sesame flour since I can't use almond flour. I've often used sunflower seed flour to bake with, but the chemical reaction of sunflowers and baking soda make for things turning green, so not the best choice here.
Low Carb Depression Cake
I finally made this cake one day when a friend of mine was watching my kids for me at her house so I could do some packing. Her daughter was recently diagnosed with a dairy intolerance. I knew I had to make this cake and since my son would be there, nut free was the plan as well.
There were 8 children over her house that day for a get together. About 6 of them do not eat gluten free or sugar free so I was excited to see their reaction when they ate a piece of my cake.
Of course I had all ready tested it out and eaten a piece and knew it was amazing so I wasn't worried but you just never know with kids....... they are always bluntly honest.
The reaction? Before I even had spent a moment thanking my friend for watching my kids for the afternoon, I turned to look and all the kids were eating a piece in the kitchen! Smiling, nodding of it's yumminess, with mouths smeared with chocolate all over!
It was devoured! Even the moms were shocked it was free of so many allergens and tasted so amazing.
Wacky Cake
I think you'll find this Depression, Crazy, Wacky Cake or whatever you choose to call it will be a huge hit whenever you make it! Next time I will double it to make 24 pieces because 12 was just not enough!
Here's the Live video I did making this cake:
Brenda's Notes:
- Nutritional Information below is NOT including the chocolate frosting.
- I used my 2 Ingredient Chocolate Frosting in these photos. Other frosting options: Sugar Free Buttercream Frosting or just use Sugar Free Whipped Cream.
Sugar Free Low Carb Chocolate Crazy Cake
Sugar Free Low Carb Chocolate Crazy Cake { Egg Free, Dairy Free, Nut Free, Gluten Free}
Ingredients
- 1 cup sesame flour or 130 grams (read comments below if using almond flour)
- ½ cup ground flaxseed or 60 grams
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder or 25 grams
- 1 cup Swerve confectioners or 130 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoons avocado oil or oil of choice
- ½ teaspoon chocolate liquid stevia or ½ cup sweetener of choice
- 1 cup water or if you have heavy cream or unsweetened almond or coconut milk you can use that
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line an 8 by 8 baking pan with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the first 7 dry ingredients.
- Make 3 depressions or shallow dips in the dry mixture, 2 small and 1 large.
- Pour the vinegar in a small depression, the vanilla extract and chocolate stevia in the other small depression and the oil in the large depression.
- Pour the water over the top and stir until smooth.
- Spread the batter into the baking pan.
- Place in the middle rack of your oven and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes clean.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes then remove by holding the ends of the parchment paper.
- Place onto a cutting board to frost then slice.
Notes
Nutrition
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.
Debbie
LMAO!!! I was reading all the comments and did not expectt this response OMG this made my day!!! 😎
Lesley
Hi SFM,
Sorry to ask, it may have been asked. Can you reolace sesame flour with coconut and if you thought it was a good replacement or negatives to coconut flour?
Debbie
So I made this and used Almond Flour instead. It came very good. It held up really well. It wasn’t exactly cake like …more like a brownie but thats ok… who doesn’t love brownies??? I doubled the recipe and used 2- 9 inch cheesecake pans and lined them with parchment paper. I made some Keto Chocolate Frosting and was able to frost the whole thing. OMG THIS WAS HEAVENLY. I made sure to cut a small piece because this is definitely a rich cake. Thank you so much for a YUMMY YUMMY RICH CAKE (( BROWNIE 😊)
Jeanne
Did you use 1 cup of almond flour? Thanks. Jeanne
Tina
I didn't see any notes about using almond flour. Did you get an answer?
PattyC
AnneB September 18, 2022 at 6:35 pm
4 stars **** For those looking for the almond flour conversion: USE 1 C. ALMOND FLOUR + 1 TSP XANTHUM GUM. This yielded a slight rise & cake was moist. ***
Nicole
Just trying to find the amount of almond flour I could use instead of sesame. Thank you. Can't really to try it. I have everything and my bowl is ready....
Brenda
I haven't tested it myself but others have said they used the same amount.
Annette Lynd
HI,
So I tried this recipe.
I found the flax seeds at 1/2 cup a little too strong for my taste buds with this cake that turned out like a soft brownie for me. I will be cutting back on flax to get the nutty flavor but not the strong flax taste. I had to sub Ghee for the oils and think the five tablespoons wasn't a good dry to wet ratio for me. I will probably cut back to three. Although there were more ingredients than I cared to gather together, I amazingly had everything if you count the almond flour and Ghee I used. I had to cook the cake more than 30 minutes but again my wet/dry ratio didn't seem to fit so I will have to guess the time required next time once the wet/dry ratio is fixed.
Over-all, not bad for homemade tweeking to taste !
Laurie Cabot
Brenda, thank you for all your great recipes. I’ve actually made this one twice within the last week. However I made changes since we like to eat our sweets at night but I don’t want chocolate. Instead of the chocolate I used vanilla whey protein, which gave it a nice flavor. My husband also likes the vanilla cakes better. And instead of the chocolate liquid stevia I used cake batter extract to add to the vanilla cake flavor for him. The only change was r]the flours. Since he has diabetes and has trouble swallowing the nut flours are too dry for him so I found Carb Quick, for less carbs, and can use that as my flour. The second cake I used half Carb Quick flour and half almond flour, which also worked. This recipe has a lot of options for changes and that just adds to the ability to enjoy it. So again, thank you.
Laurie C.
John
*smiles*
Depression Cake... Flax seed that costs $191...
That’s funny.
Thecla
Dear Brenda,
This weekend I tried making this cake twice. Once in a gas oven and once in a combi oven. Both times the cake got burned on top and it did not bake. The middle stayed fluid.
The ovens we pre heated tot 180 degrees C that 350 degrees Fahrenheit. What am I doing wrong? Should I cover up the top and set the oven on a higher temp to let the cake cook?
Best regards,
Thecla from the Netherlands.
Brenda
Are you at a high altitude? That's the only thing I can think would cause it to burn like that. Try reducing your temp to 325, cover and cook a shorter time then check the center with a toothpick. Sorry you had trouble!
Thecla
Hello Brenda,
Thanks for answering
I live in the Netherlands (Western Europe), so at sea level.
The cake was still fluid in the middle after 30 minutes in the oven on the 180 C temp. I could poor the content straight in the trash can 🙁 Later this week I will trt 160 C and see what happens. I find it strange that the middle of the cake is not cooked. If it works out I will let you know here. My gas oven had only heat on the bottom.
Thanks again.
Thecla
Beth
I'm making this again today. 4th time now. I use almond flour. It doesn't rise as much but omg it is so yummy. The second day even better!
Brenda
Do you use the same amount of almond as sesame?
Lina
HI Brenda - can this be made in 12 muffin tin holder for a cupcake? what would be the cooking time difference if it can?
Thank you!
Brenda
I think that would work and the cook time would maybe be 20-25 minutes
Lexi
Made this last night for the first time and it was a winner for my family. I usually dont like the flavor of flax so I was nervous but you couldn't really taste it which was great! I kept all the ingredients true with the exception of adding butter flavored coconut oil instead of the Avo oil and added a 1/2 tsp of cake batter extract. My question is if I didnt want to add the cocoa powder and chocolate stevia for a chocolate cake as to make a more traditional "yellow" cake would I have to adjust anything in the recipe to accommodate for the change? Thank you love your recipes!
Jackie
Love the sound of all of your recipes. I am new to low carb diets. I have almond, coconut and quinoa flour. Could you please tell me if quinoa flour can be substituted instead of almond or coconut?
thanks
Brenda
Sorry I've not tested that so can't really say it would work for you.
Sarah
Hi there! Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I didn’t have sesame flour so I used 11/4 cup of Carbquik and 1/4 cup of psyllium husk. Also I subbed a cup of coffee for the water. It baked quite nice! It did deflate some but that’s to be expected. The batter tasted very good. The cake itself is cooling in the fridge and waiting for after dinner. Can’t wait to try it!
Doug Hjellen
I made it with Stevia instead of sugar, almond flour instead of sesame flour and milk instead of water. It was not worth eating. I threw it away. It was probably due to the Stevia.
Cindy
I was wondering if you could use agave in your recipes and/or how to be able substitute. Thank you!
Brenda
I don't use agave so I'm not sure how sweet it is in comparison to the sweeteners I use. Best bet is use a small amount, taste the batter before baking to decide if it's sweet enough for you.
Debra Dusseault
I made this cake today. It came out excellent. I used blanched almond flour since I did not have the sesame flour. I used the butter cream frosting and voila! Perfect!
Brenda
Thanks for sharing! Can you share how much almond flour used and if you changed or added anything else or kept the recipe the same otherwise.
De Reiger
Hi Brenda,
Thank you for sharing this,i love baking and i found out that your recipe is low in sugar.This is a good article for me.
Judy
Looking for the note about subbing almond flour, but can't find it. Was it is a previous posting?
Brenda
I have not made these with almond flour as my youngest has a tree nut allergy, but I've read all the comments form others and there were many below who mentioned they subbed almond flour and were successful.
Kyla Bullers
Thank you, Brenda, for sharing all you do! I love your recipes & the fact that you are a Christian. Your kindness shows through! I am thinking to try this recipe with quinoa flour as I don't have sesame. Thanks again!
Brenda
Please let me know if that swap works for you. Thank you!
Bharat
By sesame flour, I am assuming it is defatted ground sesame. If so, can I use ground sesame as well?
Bharat
Can I use granular sweetener instead of liquid stevia?
Brenda
Sure!
Mary
Thank you Brenda for this recipe. I have enjoyed it and wonder if it can be made as a vanilla cake?
Claire Downes
Hello. My son is also allergic to sesame. He has severe anaphylaxis. Any nuts, seeds etc. Can you suggest another type of flour that would work?
Chris
I'm not much of a baker now that I'm in my senior years but thought this recipe was easy enough for me to do. That is until I saw that it contains artificial sugar. Unfortunately while I'm not allergic to any of the other ingredients, I'm allergic to artificial sugars of any kind. Break out in hives. Do you think I could substitute real sugar? I'm thinking if I don't put any sugar in it won't taste good.
Brenda
The sugar free sweeteners I use in all of my recipes are not artificial. Splenda, Aspartame, Sucralose, Maltitol are artificial. Stevia is not artificial and Swerve is a natural sweetener as well coming from erythritol which is found naturally in vegetables. You can use whatever sweetener you like and yes without any sweetness it would be a bitter cake because of the unsweetened cocoa powder.
Jen
Thank you for this recipe! It turned out great! I used 1 c. almond flour, and 1/2 c. Pyure stevia powder. I cannot have eggs, so it is hard to find recipes that are low carb and egg free! Thank you!
Kyla Bullers
Thanks for the tip, this is how I plan to try it...or possibly with quinoa flour in place of the sesame!
Melonda Gruntmeir
Brenda,
Thank you so much for your hard work and for publishing this free recipe. We are new to low-carbohydrate cooking. I will try it when I can afford all your ingredients so I don't have to substitute. Wacky cake is my husband's favorite.
Thank you!
Melonda
Elisa
What can I use instead of 1/2 teaspoon chocolate liquid stevia?
Brenda
You can use any sweetener you like really.