I think I might have just made history. I made an Oil Free Chocolate Cake that is super chocalatey, rich and moist using minimal sugar and without adding any oil. Plus, it is 100% vegan – I am so happy I could cry 😉 This Oil Free Chocolate Cake is probably the healthiest cake I have ever made and really doesn’t contain any “special” ingredients – you probably have most of the ingredients sitting in your pantry waiting to get turned into this delectable healthy dark chocolate cake.
I made a sugar-free raspberry glaze for this Oil Free Chocolate Cake that is naturally sweetened and thickened by using fresh apples – but don’t worry you can’t taste the apples in the end result. For all the chocolate lovers out there, I also made a dark-chocolate raspberry glaze that works perfectly on this cake or can also easily be enjoyed by the spoonful (*insert devilish laugh here* – everything is simply better when it can be enjoyed by the spoonful like peanut butter, nut butter, chocolate… you get the idea). The cake is whipped up in less than 35 minutes from start to finish and you can make the glaze in about 10 minutes while the Oil Free Chocolate Cake is baking in the oven! Low in fat and sugar, delicious, quick, and full of chocolate – could this cake get any better?
I made my cake in a square cake pan and cut it into 9 hearty pieces. If you are making this as a birthday cake simply double the recipe, divide the batter in two, and pour it into two round pans. This cake is not super “delicate” and would make a perfect cake for layering with some yummy icing in between.
Lately, as winter approaches it becomes increasingly harder to go outside and get active and increasingly easier to stay inside, hibernate and eat chocolate. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of the latter and needed a chocolate cake to satisfy my craving that would not lead me into a sugar-induced coma. The average cake is pretty bad for you due to the fact that the two main ingredients are sugar and butter but this cake is equally as delicious, super healthy and even contains some vitamins in there for good measure 🙂
The star of this Oil Free Chocolate Cake is sweet potato. Sweet potato is very moist thus acting as a great oil replacement in this cake. It is also very sweet (haha, obviously) so you get away with adding a lot less sugar than you would to your standard chocolate cake. You cannot taste the sweet potato once that cake is cooked (promise) but you’ll know your secret and why the cake is super moist with just the right amount of sweetness (without all the calories). I tested this cake out on several people (tough critics!) and all of them loved it without having any idea that the cake contains sweet potato. One of my friends even declared that it was one of the best chocolate cakes she ever tried. As a side note, roasting the sweet potato in the oven oppose to quickly microwaving it makes a world of difference in this cake. Roasting the sweet potato brings out the sugary undertones in the potato whereas microwaving it seems to kill a lot of the sweetness. If you are pressed for time (like I was the second time making this cake), add in one to two more tablespoons of syrup or sugar to make up for the sweetness “lost” in the microwave.
My day to day diet usually isn’t “low fat” – so why a “fat free” cake you ask? I love to include healthy fats from avocados, nuts, nut butters and an array of other goodies but I wanted to make a cake here that can easily be a part of a healthy day to day lifestyle or help someone who is trying to lose weight. When I was in the process of becoming healthier and losing weight, “fat free” and low sugar baked goods helped me to continue to enjoy the foods I love in my day to day life without feeling unhealthy. One of my biggest pet peeves about dieting is the fact that it revolves around deprivation. There is this “healthy” image projected in the media which is connected to deprivation and the notion that we should feel guilty when enjoying certain foods. This is part of this toxic cycle of eating, feeling bad about what we eat, and consequently developing unhealthy eating habits that have negative psychological and physical consequences. We should never feel guilty about the foods we eat and eating the “right” foods which make us feel good is a journey. Discovering healthy foods that taste great over eating foods that get their flavour from tons of sugar and butter seems like a no-brainer to me now – I’d rather enjoy a big piece of delicious healthy cake and feel great after (inside and out!) then indulge in your average chocolate cake filled with tons of sugar and butter that never left me feeling particularly hot! Cakes like this one helped me in getting over this toxic cycle of guilt and eating, build on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and enjoy the foods I love without all the “deprivation”. I want to enjoy life, feel great, healthy AND enjoy my cake and eat it too 🙂 This cake is almost fat-free, so you can always slather it in some nut butter to get your daily dose of healthy fats!
I hope that this Oil Free Chocolate Cake satisfies your chocolate craving – I know it did not last long around my house 🙂 Here is to continuing to enjoy the foods we love surrounded by love, happiness, and of course chocolate!
Oil Free Chocolate Cake + Sugar Free Raspberry Glaze
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
A delicious, decadent, soft and moist Oil Free Chocolate Cake that is only 145 calories for one huge piece! Topped off with a naturally sweet Sugar Free Raspberry Glaze tastes perfect on any cake or ice cream!
Author: Ceara
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 9 pieces
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 1¼ cups flour (spelt, all-purpose, white-whole wheat...)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp sea salt
"Wet" Ingredients:
- ¾ cup mashed roasted sweet potato
- 3 heaping tablespoons unsweetened applesauce*
- ½ cup cocoa
- ½ cup cane sugar*
- 2 tbsp maple syrup, agave or honey*
- 1 tbsp vinegar (apple cider or white)*
- 2 tsp vanilla (optional)
- ½ cup hot fresh strong coffee
- ½ tsp instant coffee granules (optional)
Sugar Free Raspberry Glaze
- 2 heaping cups raspberries (I used frozen, but fresh also would work well)
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ tsp sea salt (or to taste)
- 3 apples chopped and cored (*with skins on - see directions step 3)
- 2 tbsp cocoa + 20 grams (2 squares) of dark chocolate
Directions
Cake
- Pre-heat oven to 375ºf or 190ºc. Roast Sweet Potato for 45 minutes until soft when poked with a fork. Once the sweet potato has cooled down (10 minutes), with a knife, cut a slit down the centre lengthwise of the sweet potato and scoop out the insides. Lightly mash with a fork. Measure out ¾ cups sweet potato. For alternative microwave method see notes beneath recipe.
- Turn oven down to 350ºf or 180ºc. Mix dry ingredients in a medium size bowl.
- Brew coffee. Add the "wet" ingredients, including coffee and sweet potato, to a large size bowl. Blend with a stick blender or whisk until very creamy. Using a blender will get the best result because it blends through all the bits of the sweet potato. This can also be achieved if you mashed it really well beforehand (if you don't have a blender).
- Fold dry ingredients into the wet chocolate mixture until everything is mixed together and you cannot see any more flour (Make sure to not over mix - this will result in a very dense cake).
- Lightly grease a square cake pan (or round if you want a round cake!) with oil using a piece of paper towel. Make sure that the entire inside of the pan is well greased.
- Pour cake batter into greased pan. Smooth out batter with the back of a metal spoon.
- Bake for 22 - 25 minutes until a toothpick comes out almost clean. Leave to cool for at least 15 minutes in the pan.
Sugar Free Raspberry Glaze
- Toss raspberries in a medium size deep pot with water on medium high heat. Put lid on pot and wait until the raspberries heat up and the mixture starts to lightly boil. Stir with a wooden spoon.
- Add in chopped apples (keep the skins on because they contain a ton of fibre!). Maintain simmer over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes until the apples are soft to touch. When stirring, mash apples into the raspberry mixture with the back of the wooden spoon. The apple pieces will eventually dissolve and become apart of the raspberry mixture.
- Take the pot off the heat and wait for it to cool down a bit. Using a stick blender, blend the raspberry mixture until all the apple skins are dissolved into the sauce (If you do not have a blender, simply core and peel the apples at the beginning to avoid having apple skin in your end result).
- Transfer back to the pot and put the Raspberry Mixture back on the stove-top over a medium-low heat and stir for another two minutes. Add the sea salt.
- If using, add the chocolate and dissolve the chocolate into the raspberry glaze over a medium low heat. I chose to divide my mixture in half at this point so I had half raspberry and half-raspberry chocolate glaze in the end. If doing this. only use half the chocolate (1 tbsp cocoa and 1 chocolate square).
- Store the Glaze for up to 5 days sealed in the fridge. Glaze will thicken when cooled down and is easily reheated in the microwave.
Notes
- If you do not have cane sugar on hand use white or a light brown sugar [will no longer be refined sugar free].
- If you are using microwaved sweet potato, this will result in your sweet potato not being as sweet - I would then recommend to add two more tablespoons of syrup. Microwave sweet potato by washing sweet potato poking holes all over it with a fork, and putting it in a large bowl with a bit of water. Microwave for five minutes until soft when poked with a fork.
- If you do not have vinegar on hand you can just leave it out - this will just result in a denser cake
- If you don't want this cake to be "fat free" simply replace some of the applesauce with melted coconut oil ... 😉
Nutritional Benefits: No cholesterol, high in Vitamin A, C, fiber, manganese, selenium and also provides you with a healthy dose of calcium and iron.
- If you are using microwaved sweet potato, this will result in your sweet potato not being as sweet - I would then recommend to add two more tablespoons of syrup. Microwave sweet potato by washing sweet potato poking holes all over it with a fork, and putting it in a large bowl with a bit of water. Microwave for five minutes until soft when poked with a fork.
- If you do not have vinegar on hand you can just leave it out - this will just result in a denser cake
- If you don't want this cake to be "fat free" simply replace some of the applesauce with melted coconut oil ... 😉
Nutritional Benefits: No cholesterol, high in Vitamin A, C, fiber, manganese, selenium and also provides you with a healthy dose of calcium and iron.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 436 Fat: 4g Saturated fat: 1g Unsaturated fat: 2g Trans fat: 0g Carbohydrates: 111g Sugar: 68g Sodium: 1192mg Fiber: 33g Protein: 6g Cholesterol: 0mg
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Please tell me more about this. May I ask you a question?
Oh yes, I use gluten free flour. Have tried different ones. Last time I made it I only used 1 cup.
Dear Ceara,
I have made this several times and enjoy it so much. Thank you for a great recipe. I have tried numerous no added fat recipes and for some reason this is the only one that works for me. :). Wish you would come up with some other no added fat desserts that were as successful as this one. Like white cake or chocolate chip cookies. But I don’t think I pay you enough for that! 🙂
hi!
it looks so good 🙂 i plan to try it this week.
but i have 2 questions:
1. what method you use to roast the sweet potato?
just put it like this in the oven?
2. what size of sheet pan you use?
thank you, cant wait to try it!
Can I use splenda yo replace the sugar?
Your calorie count is way off. 1 1/4 c flour is 570 calories, 3/4 c sweet potato is 190, 1/2 sugar is 390, 2 tbsp honey is 120 calories, and 1/2 c cocoa is 100 calories. That’s 1370 calories.
Nonetheless, it’s a delicious cake and loads healthier and nutritious than a regular cake. Fantastic recipe!!!!
I baked this and replaced the cocoa powder with cacao powder. I have MS, and the cocao powder is so nutritious and the cake was still scrummy!! I sandwiches the glaze inbetween the cake as a sponge….thank you for the recipe!!
I just made this! It is delicious!!!
I was happy to find your oil/egg/dairy free chocolate cake recipe (omitted the chocolate). Mine tasted great but it sank in the middle with raw cake mix there. I tested it with a metal skewer which came out clean but maybe a toothpick gives a better indication. I wonder if you have any ideas on how I could stop that occurring next time.
Ceara- I have made my fair share of vegan chocolate cakes. None were as well liked as yours! I have a friend with a very discerning taste. She has not liked any of my previous vegan chocolate cakes, but she LOVES this one!!! Thanks for the recipe!
So happy you are your friend loved the chocolate cake! 🙂 Thank you!
I made this recipe yesterday and it is a hit! Thank you. 🙂
Happy to hear it was a hit! Thank you 🙂
What do you think would be the best way to make this gluten free?
That’s a great question, Anna. I’ve never made this cake gluten free (I usually make it with spelt or a light whole wheat flour) so I can’t guarantee the results if you use a GF flour blend. My best best would be to try it with the traditional Bob’s Red Mill flour blend with a 1/2 tsp of xantham gum or the 1 for 1 GF flour blend from Bob’s. I’d love to know your results if you end up trying it to know your results! Happy Baking 🙂
Hi Ceara! Thanks so much for this recipe – I’ve made it and it tastes pretty good!
Only thing is that the mixture is very dry (I can’t mix the wet and dry nicely together – so I ended up shifting 1/4 cup flour away). I used whole wheat pastry flour – do you think that makes a difference?
Thanks so much for the feedback, phoebe! I can’t think of why the batter would be dry because this cake batter is usually a very easy to pour consistency. I am wondering if your sweet potato was maybe dry?! I don’t have much experience baking with whole wheat pastry flour but from what I’ve heard it makes a good sub for AP, whole wheat or spelt flour (all of which I’ve had success baking this cake with!). Thanks for the feedback again and I’m happy you enjoyed the cake! It’s a go-to around here 😀
Thanks Ceara! I’ll try to make it again next week =)
Let me know how it turns out, Phoebe 🙂 Happy Baking!