The perfect THM low carb chocolate snack cake. A recipe devoted to all of my Trim Healthy Mama readers! It’s easy, too.
I have readers from all walks of life, from all sorts of backgrounds and upbringings and countries. I am truly fascinated by the diversity of my readership. Mind you, the vast majority of you are women from Western countries, between the ages of 25 and 60. I am sure I could make plenty of generalizations about the people who manage to find and follow this blog. But they all come here for their own personal reasons and with their own unique experiences. And I think that speaks volumes about the increasing growth and recognition of low carb living as a healthy alternative to the Standard American Diet.
This recipe is actually written for a particular subset of my readership. That is not to say that it’s not appropriate for anyone on a low carb diet, because it most certainly is. And that is not to say that it is not delicious for anyone, no matter what diet, because it most certainly is. It’s just that this particular recipe was developed for those that follow Trim Healthy Mama and like to use the Trim Healthy Mama products like the Baking Blend, the Sweet Blend, and the Gentle Sweet. I have many wonderful followers from THM and they are often asking me how to use and/or substitute those things in my recipes. So I felt duty-bound to play with these ingredients and see what I could come up with.
I also wanted to make an easy low carb chocolate snack cake that would appeal to kids and adults alike. I had the Sara Lee snack cake in my head as a model. You know the one the one, that single-layer chocolate cake the chocolate frosting piped on in pretty star shapes? It’s typically found in the freezer aisle and is full of all sorts of junk, but people love it. I love the idea of “snack cake”, something that’s simple enough and healthy enough to offer to kids when they come home from school or to any unexpected guests that drop by. But a cake that can also be special enough to double as dessert if necessary. That’s the kind of cake I wanted to make.
And this definitely fit the bill, although I do ask you to not look too closely at my piping of the frosting. I am not particularly talented in that area and although I followed the instructions on Wilton for a “star fill in” decorating technique, I had plenty of little gaps between my stars that needed re-filling in with additional blobs of frosting. I am sure some of you could do much better!
For those of you who have yet to try the THM products, you can check them out here on the THM Store. The baking blend is a useful low carb flour alternative that is meant to measure exactly like flour. And the Sweet Blend is a combination of erythritol and stevia that is typically twice as sweet as sugar. There are many other useful low carb ingredients such as gluccomannan, gelatin, whey protein, peanut flour, stevia, and xylitol. It’s definitely worth a look!
THM Chocolate Snack Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 ½ cups THM Baking Blend
- ⅔ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ to ⅓ cup THM Sweet Blend (depending on how sweet you like it)
- ¼ cup unflavoured whey protein powder
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules (optional, helps boost chocolate flavour)
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- ½ cup butter melted
- ¾ to 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (if your batter is overly thick, add a little more almond milk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Frosting:
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate chopped
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 6 tablespoon butter softened
- ¼ cup THM Sweet Blend powdered, if possible
- 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 9x9 inch square baking pan (you can also use 8x8 inches, but your cake will take a little longer to bake).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the Baking Blend, cocoa powder, Sweet Blend, protein powder, instant coffee, baking powder, and salt.
- Stir in eggs, melted butter, almond milk, and vanilla until well combined. Spread in prepared baking pan.
- Bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until cake is set and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely.
Frosting:
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring cream to just a simmer. Remove from heat and add chopped chocolate. Let sit 5 minutes and then whisk until smooth. Let cool to lukewarm.
- In a large bowl beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in sweetener, cocoa powder and vanilla extract. Add chocolate mixture and beat until well combined, scraping down beaters and sides of bowl as needed.
- Spread or pipe onto cooled cake.
Notes
Total fat: 18.50g
Calories from fat: 166
Cholesterol: 80mg
Carbohydrate: 9.18g
Total dietary fiber: 5.96g
Protein: 6.60g
Rins says
Have you tried making this recipe into cupcakes? Any tips on how I might be able to do that?
JoAnne says
My family has embraced a low carb diet since a diabetes diagnosis for both my husband and son. I am inspired by your amazing recipes and thank you for this wonderful blog. My question is relative to the oat fiber in the THM Baking Blend. I realize that all the carbs in oat fiber are dietary fiber, but am hesitant to feed my family something that may raise blood sugar. Has anyone tested their blood sugar after eating something with this baking blend, or more specifically, oat fiber?
Carolyn says
Well, I certainly have and don’t find it to raise my blood sugar but I can’t speak for all. You can try making this with just a combo of almond flour and coconut flour. I suggested to people already how to do so, it’s in the comments somewhere here!
Janet says
Where can I find the THM Recipes called for in the Chocolate Snack Cake above?
Thanks. J. Jacob
Carolyn says
The recipes? do you mean the products? I’ve linked to them so you can purchase them if you wish.
rachel @ athletic avocado says
i can’t believe that this is low carb! I would have never guessed! It looks amazing 🙂
Maureen says
This looks wonderful. Cannot wait to try it. And your post is so timely. I just became aware of the THM products and decided to try the baking blend.And I wanted to try the bread recipe that everyone was raving about so I bought the cookbook. So disappointing. I did not really like the baking blend. Did not care for the bread. I have never used oat fiber and that is probably the taste I do not like. So along comes your recipe and I thought: great! maybe the chocolate taste will mask the oat fiber taste! Thanks Carolyn!
Joan Hayes says
Mmmmm I love the looks of this! And the frosting looks so beautiful!
Keri B says
This recipe looks divine and I will be giving it a try this weekend! I love your blog and all your recipes so thanks for sharing and thinking of us on THM!
Karen says
Awww… Love your piping – it’s beautiful. IF I had the patience to pipe anything, pretty sure it wouldn’t look as nice. Thanks for another drool-inducing recipe.
Amy says
Do you think I could substitute collagen for whey protein powder?
Carolyn says
You could, but I don’t think that would help the consistency at all. Protein powder helps baked goods rise and hold their shape, in the absence of gluten. I’ve found that collagen makes things a little on the heavier side.
Alex says
I live overseas and can’t get the baking blend nor can I get the oat fiber and xanthan gum to make the copycat baking blend recipes. If I wanted to substitute almond flour and/or coconut flour for the baking blend, do you know how much I would use?
Carolyn says
If you were going to do a sub here, I’d do 1 1/2 cups almond flour and 3 tbsp coconut flour for the Baking Blend. If you find it overly thick, add a little more liquid. It shouldn’t be pourable but it should be spreadable in the pan.
Catie says
Hi! This looks so beautiful and yummy! One question: do you use the gentle sweet or super sweet?
Thanks!
Carolyn says
The “Sweet Blend” which is the original one, which I believe would be Super Sweet (because it’s 2x as sweet as sugar).
Brandy says
Can’t wait to try this! Btw, I love the metal pan pictured here. Do you mind sharing the brand and where you found it? TIA!
Carolyn says
Yup, that’s a USA pan, the best non-stick pan, IMO. I got mine on Amazon but I’ve seen them in Bed, Bath & Beyond for about the same price. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UNMZO4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002UNMZO4&linkCode=as2&tag=aldaidrabfo05-20&linkId=JUIYM7E5IFCPA4LF
kelly says
I’d like to know if there’s a sub for the baking blend too? I haven’t tried the THM bakng blend, but I do use their sugar sub blend. My daughter was recently diagnosed with T1D and your blog has literally been a life-saver. I love to bake and we just had two family birthdays and used your recipes. You KNOW a recipe is amazing when you’d eat it regardless of health issues or not. That’s a win-win situation for us. =) (loving you almond joy muffins as well as your coconut cheesecake!) Now on a mission to find the “perfect” low carb brownie!!
Carolyn says
If you were going to do a sub here, I’d do 1 1/2 cups almond flour and 3 tbsp coconut flour for the Baking Blend. If you find it overly thick, add a little more liquid. It shouldn’t be pourable but it should be spreadable in the pan.
Stacy says
I appreciate your time and recipes. I have looked through your other posts trying to find the baking pans you use because you mentioned them before. I see one in the picture!! What brand? Thank you VERY much!!
Carolyn says
That’s a good USA pan, very non-stick and I love it (you do have to be careful not to scratch it with metal). Here’s the link on Amazon but I’ve seen them at Bed, Bath And Beyond too for about the same price. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002UNMZO4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002UNMZO4&linkCode=as2&tag=aldaidrabfo05-20&linkId=JUIYM7E5IFCPA4LF
Stacy says
Oh my goodness. Thank you for answering my question about fave pans
a FULL MONTH ago! Sorry I just noticed!! ?
renee taylor says
I am so excited about this recipe. I LOVE the THM baking blend. And actually, I’m going to use the THM Gentle Sweet instead of Sweet Blend. It’s our preferred sweetner. My husband and children DO NOT like the “stevia” taste or erythritol, whichever one it is that has an after taste, but they can’t detect it in the Gentle Sweet. Thanks so much for this. THM desserts have saved me from many health issues caused by sugar.
Carolyn says
It should work fine with Gentle Sweet too, in twice the amount.
Cari says
Also, you have to keep using the super sweet and pretty soon you don’t taste any after taste at all. I save my gentle sweet for the skinny chocolate and the no bake cookies.
Angela Curry says
I dont have thm products. Have you made it with other ingredients?
Sarah G says
Do you need the baking blend and sweet blend to make this?
Carolyn says
If you were going to do a sub here, I’d do 1 1/2 cups almond flour and 3 tbsp coconut flour for the Baking Blend. If you find it overly thick, add a little more liquid. Then I’d do 2 times the amount of Swerve as the Sweet Blend.
Madeline | madeline marie says
This looks so decadent–and i love how it is low carb! I definitely need to eat more of these kinds of desserts in my life.. : )
Pamela says
This is so timely. I was just salivating over a Sara Lee dessert in the store yesterday while trying to think of what ingredients I might need for a similar but healthier quickie dessert. Thanks also for making this recipe THM friendly as it saves me some time in recalculating the ingredients so I can get to the snacking quicker!
Brenda says
I was so excited to see this recipe that I made it before breakfast and have a couple questions.
Is the batter supposed to be so very thick that you have to spatula it in the pan?
Also, my cake was dry so wondering if that might be from over baking?
Love the flavor and the frosting so trying to figure out how mine was so dry and crumbly?
Carolyn says
Yes, it is on the thicker side but no, it shouldn’t be overly dry. I wonder if your eggs were smaller?
Brenda says
Ok I do use farm fresh eggs and they vary in sizes so will keep that in mind…also I think I might have over baked thanks so much
I was so excited to see this recipe that I made it before breakfast and have a couple questions.
Is the batter supposed to be so very thick that you have to spatula it in the pan?
Also, my cake was dry so wondering if that might be from over baking?
Love the flavor and the frosting so trying to figure out how mine was so dry and crumbly?
Carolyn says
I find that with gluten-free batters like this, I almost always have to spread them into the pan, rather than pour them. Just FYI, same when I use almond flour and/or coconut flour. And yes, I guess it may have over baked. I may try to adjust that in the recipe a bit to take different ovens into account.