Studies have shown that sugar may be as addictive as cocaine, in terms of stimulating the reward centres of the brain and causing withdrawal symptoms.

Anybody following a low-carb lifestyle will agree with this.

But everyone deserves chocolate cake once in a while, don’t they? Even if it does often result in reactivating the sugar addiction and bringing about post-indulgence guilt feelings…

Well how about you have your cake and eat it? This is an easy recipe for virtually carb-free chocolate cake that is sweet, moist and delicious.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons cocoa powder

• 1/2 cup boiling water

• 3 eggs

• 2 tablespoons vanilla essence

• 150ml oil [Whichever you prefer. I use olive oil.]

• 1.5 cups almond flour

• 1.5 tablespoons baking powder

• 1 cup xylitol

• 1 pinch salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 170­°C.

Add the boiling water to the cocoa powder and mix to make a paste.

Beat together the eggs, vanilla essence and olive oil. Then add to the cocoa paste.

Combine the dry ingredients and add them to the mixture.

Pour the batter into a greased oven dish which is lined at the bottom with baking paper.

Bake for 45 minutes.

Optional Icing & Decoration

It was my mother’s birthday, so I went all out.

Ingredients

• 200g butter

• 4 tablespoons xylitol

• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

• 100ml cream

• 5 tablespoons cocoa powder

• 45ml boiling water

• sugar free (and/or virtually carb-free) sweets

Method

Cream together the butter and xylitol until smooth.

Add the vanilla and cream and mix.

Add the cocoa and mix.

Add the boiling water to the mixture, little by little, while mixing, until the icing mixture is smooth.

Ice the cake when it has cooled down fully.

In the spirit of birthday celebrations, I expanded my decoration attempt with candles and sugar-free decorations. Unfortunately it looked like a 7-year-old’s art project. Fortunately it tasted heavenly.