A healthy recipe for layer-cake for such a long time. They look impressive and have the perfect combination of textures with the crumbly cake balanced out by a healthy cream layer in the middle.
But we all know that ordinary cream and chocolate isn’t good for our health or our waistlines – but the good news is that this one CAN be enjoyed as a treat as part of your Lose Baby Weight & Healthy Mummy plans as it is only 170 calories per serve! And if you are following our best selling 28 Day Plan you can easily have one of these treats as part of that plan too.
This is called a brownie cake because it is quite dense and moist with a flat top. The mashed bananas replace butter and also add natural sweetness. Bananas are an amazing superfood which provide sustained energy, high antioxidants, vitamins including B and C, healthy carbohydrates and are low GI! They are excellent at helping you feel full and satisfied to help reduce cravings.
This recipe also uses wholemeal flour. As it’s not as fine as white processed flour, it can be difficult to sift so I find it best aerated with other dry ingredients by whisking together in a bowl. This combines the dry ingredients thoroughly, helps to remove lumps and also adds air for extra lightness in your baking.
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp raw cacao powder
- Stevia equiv to ¼ cup sugar
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 3 large ripe mashed bananas
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 5 eggs whites, beaten
- ¾ cups wholemeal SRF
- ¾ cup almond meal
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 2 x tsp boiling water
- 90ml milk
- 2 x 400ml cans coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
Icing
- 20g dark chocolate
- ½ tsp coconut or olive oil
- ½ cup coconut sugar
- 1 tbsp raw cacao powder
Method
- Refrigerate cans of coconut milk approx 24hours before baking
- Grease and line a medium square cake tin and preheat the oven to 180⁰
- Beat together cacao powder, stevia and milk
- Beat in mashed bananas then coconut sugar and vanilla
- In a separate large bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy. Gradually beat in chocolate mixture
- Fold in flour, almond meal and baking powder until well combined
- Pour into cake tin and bake approximately 40 minutes, or until skewer in the centre of the cake comes out clean
- Leave to mostly cool in the tin then place on wire rack to completely cool
- Using a large bread knife, cut the cake in half horizontally
- Open cans of coconut milk and remove hard, waxy substance that is on top with a fork
- Beat this thick substance until smooth and slightly airy, approximately 2 minutes
- Spread over the top of the bottom, to make a thick layer
- Place top layer of cake onto top of the coconut cream
Make icing
In a small saucepan, over a low heat, melt together dark chocolate and coconut oil. Once chocolate is half melted, remove from heat and stir continuously until fully melted
In a separate bowl, combine coconut sugar, cacao powder and boiling water. Stir thoroughly.
Pour melted chocolate into sugar mixture and mix well.
Spread icing over the top layer of the cake and sprinkle a small amount of roughly chopped dark chocolate (optional)
Cut into small squares (4 x 4) to serve, Serves 16, 720kj / 170cal per serve
Thanks to Janet Cook for this AMAZING recipe!
