A healthy & surprisingly delicious avocado chocolate cake!
No oil, no butter, and just 75 calories ♥
I once read somewhere that you can sub avocado for the oil or butter in a recipe to add nutrition, cut back on fat and calories, and give baked goods a deliciously soft texture. So when a reader recently left a comment asking what she could use in place of the nut butter in my 100 Calorie Chocolate Cake, avocado was the first thing that came to my mind. Immediately, I had to try it out.
The results?
A super rich and fudgy chocolate cake with an incredibly light texture.
Shown above, frosted with my favorite Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting.
You can use any of your favorite chocolate or vanilla frosting recipes here—or lightly dust the avocado chocolate cake with powdered sugar or even top it with coconut butter and fresh berries if you’d prefer.
My previous baking attempts with avocado—trying to create a recipe for avocado brownies—were abysmally awful. (And yes, I’m aware those two words mean the same thing. Trust me; the brownies warrant the tautology. They were that bad.)
So I cannot tell you how excited I am that this avocado chocolate cake turned out so perfectly!
You won’t be able to taste the avocado at all!
Avocado Chocolate Cake
Avocado Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup spelt, white, Bob’s gf, or whole wheat pastry flour
- 6 tbsp cacao or unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup xylitol or granulated sugar of choice (140g)
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, optional
- 1/4 cup yogurt of choice (such as Wholesoy) (60g)
- 3/4 cup water (180g)
- 1/4 cup mashed avocado, measured after mashing (60g)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (8g)
Instructions
Avocado Chocolate Cake Recipe: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and grease an 8-in square or round pan. (Or double the recipe for a double-layer cake.) Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, optional chips, and sweetener, and stir very well. In a separate bowl, whisk together all remaining ingredients. Pour wet into dry and stir until just combined (don’t over-mix), then pour into the greased pan. Bake 25 minutes or until batter has risen and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before taking even a single bite. Trust me!
Have you ever tried eating avocado in an unconventional way?
Such as in chocolate avocado pudding or an avocado smoothie? Would you ever be brave enough to try baking with it? Will you try this avocado chocolate cake??!
Link Of The Day:
I may have missed it, but how many servings are in the full cake?
Anything avocado I will always take a look at. Cannot beat the health benefits of this wonderful food. Extra plus is the texture. Just love the experiments. Keep it coming!
Hi Katie,
Loving all your recipes, especially your Chocolate Avocado Mousse…served it up at my partner’s birthday party and everyone loved it…the best part was, no-one knew it was superfood and healthy!
Thanks again!
Angie C. 🙂
Has anyone tried this recipe with coconut or almond flour?
Everything I have tried on your website have been awesome, I have followed you for a couple of years I think the first thing I made was your chocolate shots mmm good. I was wondering if date paste would work for the sugar I know at an organic restaurant we go to they make an avocado dark chocolate they call it cake but it is more like cheesecake without the cheese hence the avocado and they use a homemade date paste and it is divine it is so creamy so I was wondering your thought on trying it on your cake. I am making this, this weekend thank you thank you for such great healthy recipes.
I made this today and got overexcited and threw a whole avocado in – it’s come out like a really lovely dense chocolate tart! Delicious.
I made this cake today
And I’m not sure if I did something strange incorrectly, but you can definitely taste the avocado (maybe only because I knew it was in there, cause my family said they couldn’t, they knew something out of the ordinary was in there, but they didn’t know what).
It was also super super gooey, maybe next time I’ll put the oven temp up and cook for longer, at least 5-10 minutes longer. I prefer my cake to be cakey, not almost pudding like haha
But, with all that said
It was still a hit with the family, and because of it’s contents, I can indulge!
Thank you katie!
I often make avocado shakes for lunch- 1/2 avocado, 1/2 banana, 2 tbs PB2, 1 tbs cocoa, 1/2 cup almond or soy milk and 4-5 ice cubes in my Tribest blender. So thick and smooth I sometimes need a spoon to eat it!
I made this today, using buttermilk instead of yogurt, it turned out great! I love avocado and chocolate together and now I have a great cake recipe. Next time I’m going to double the recipe because I have a feeling I’m going to eat this one pretty quickly!
This cake is perfect! Made no changes – all I had were regular chocolate chips rather than minis. My husband tasted it and said it was good before I told him what was in it. Turned my back and 3/4 of the cake was gone!!! My second cake is in the oven now.