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.
Bela
How far in advance can this be made? Should it be refrigerated if not eaten right away?
Brenda Bennett
I'd only make it one day in advance and store in the fridge.
AnneB
**** 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. ***
This was good - something I'd be willing to make again. I added the instant coffee granules to amp up the chocolate flavor, too. For frosting, I made whipped ganache using Bake Believe dark chocolate chips & heavy cream (use no more than 2/3 c. each - 1 cup/ea was too much). I'm a major chocoholic & this has certainly satisfied my craving!
Since you consistently reference nut allergies, I would like others to realize that BAKE BELIEVE is currently the ONLY nut-free (including peanuts) sugar free chocolate chip alternative out there. While Lily's may be fine for some, Bake Believe is a nut-free environment; there is no cross contamination like with Lily's. This is CRITICAL to note for those of us dealing with serious nut & peanut allergies. It's also much more reasonably priced & available at Walmart. I highly recommend!! (here's their FAQ page: https://letsbakebelieve.com/faq/) If someone learns of another nut-free + sugar-free option, by all means please share!!
I may try this with eggs - skip the flax & most of the water. For those complaining about the flavor, the flax acts as your binder to replace the eggs. There was a smell to the flax that I didn't quite expect when I took it out of the oven (used Bob's Red Mill). You can't skip it unless you replace with eggs. My guess doing so will result in something a bit more dense but now that I know it tastes decent, may be worth exploring. If I do that, I'll be sure to post back. However, then it wouldn't be the "wacky cake" or "depression cake" as before! 🙂
Jackie
Omg , what happened ? I used almond flour and the sane as you plus 1 cup of water..it was watery!! I checked now after 30 min and it's all watery again..what am I to do? Having guests over. At least the frosting turned out good!! Lucky I have a back up plan.
AnneB
are you saying you added an extra cup of water? if so - that wasn't necessary. I just made mine w/ almond flour (+ 1 tsp xanthum gum) without any issue. followed recipe as written otherwise.
Frank
This turned out terribly for me. The sesame seed taste was way too strong. It might be okay with almond flour or with more cocoa to mask the sesame taste, but as it is, it tasted like bland cake coated with tahini.
TerryF
Could you please provide the info on subbing almond flour? Thx!
Brenda
I haven't tested with almond flour since my son has a tree nut allergy but some commenters mentioned they used the same amount as the sesame and had success.
Ashley
Did you ever end up trying this with eggs? I want to but have no idea how to convert it 🙁
PattyC
I found it right after the recipe:
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. ***
Jennifer Floyd
Hello,
I tried to locate comments about how much almond flour to sub for the sesame…could never find.
Can someone help me out.
Thx!’
Roxanne
This looks to be something a diabetic could have.