Chocolate mud cake with vanilla buttercrème – made with everyday ingredients and low in sugar.
My husbands birthday sat within the Easter long weekend this year. It’s a busy weekend with few stores open and I really wanted to make a healthier cake using real, everyday ingredients for him and our guests. It was so hard to find a recipe online!
So I made one up myself, and it was absolutely delicious. I simply adapted recipes I had found. The problem with the recipes I found was that they listed so many ingredients I didn’t have on-hand and they didn’t include healthier alternatives.
You’ll notice I added ingredients such as nutritious Chia seeds to help with binding and Coconut Sugar to the recipes. Although Coconut Sugar still contains a large amount of fructose, it’s higher in nutrients and lower GI than other granular sugars. The natural sweet taste and texture works better in these recipes than sugar free alternatives such as stevia and rice malt syrup.
The recipe below makes enough for a 18cm (7inch) double layer cake with icing, approx. 15 pieces.
Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe – Gluten free, Easy
Ingredients:
1 3/4 Cups Gluten free plain flour 
1/4 Cup Raw Cacao powder
2 teaspoons Chai seeds
1 teaspoon Baking powder
3 large Free Range or Organic eggs
2 Cups Milk (your choice)
1 3/4 Cups butter
200g Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped
1 1/2 Cups Coconut Sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Method:
Oven at 160°C. Line the base of a 8cm (7”) cake pan
Using a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, cacao, baking powder and chia seeds and mix well to combine.
In a large sauce[an, add milk and butter over a medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter has melted and mixture combine. Add the dark chocolate and stir well until the chocolate has melted. Add in the sugar and stir again until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Leave this mixture to cool to room temperature.
Once cooled, add the bowl of dry ingredients and whisk until well mixed.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs together and add to the batter, folding until combined.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for approx 2.5 hours. Regularly test if the cake is done by using a thin skewer placed in the middle. When the skewer comes out clean, or with only a few crumbs attached, the cake is done. Baking times will vary depending on oven.
Allow the cake to cool for approx 25 – 30 mins before slicing in the middle to make layers or adding toppings.
Buttercream icing recipe – low sugar, easy
Makes approx 2 cups, enough to cover a 2 layer medium sized cake with left over for light filling.
3/4 Cup Butter, softened to room temp 
3/4 Cup Coconut Sugar
2 Tbs Plain Flour (gluten free if need)
1 1/2 Tb Cornstarch
3/4 Cup Milk (your choice)
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
Shake of sea salt
Blend sugar, salt, cornstarch and flour in a medium sized bowl until smooth.
Mix in the milk until smooth.
Pour this mixture into a saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat until it boils and becomes thick.
Transfer this mixture into back into the bowl and let it cool to room temperature.
Once cooled, add the vanilla and mix well. Using a hand-held blender, gently add butter and beat until combined. For a fluffy texture, beat the mixture on medium for 3 – 5 mins.
Spread upon cooled cake layers, add fresh trimmed strawberries and sprinkle raw cacao powder (optional) before serving.
This is how my cake looked 🙂 
Have you made or tried this cake? I’d love to know what you think, please comment below.
Big cheers to your good health!