It’s that time of the year when we’re all reviewing the past months and planning to do better than that in the future. I’m pretty sure that most of our lists feature healthy eating as a goal – one which is important, but easier said than done! But this doesn’t mean that you have to start your brand new year on a note of deprivation. What if I said that you could have your cake and eat it too – quite literally? Yes, with our sugar free, whole wheat chocolate orange cake recipe, you sure can!
In this recipe, I’ve skipped regular white sugar and used Coconut Sugar, also known as Coconut Palm Sugar. It is as sweet as regular caster sugar but since it has a low Glycemic Index, it doesn’t spike the blood sugar as regular sugar does. However if you can’t seem to find coconut palm sugar, regular sugar can easily be substituted.
Sugar Free, Whole Wheat Chocolate Orange Cake
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups of Whole Wheat Flour (Atta)
- ¼ cup of Cocoa Powder, unsweetened and good quality
- 1 cup of Coconut Sugar
- 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda
- 6 tablespoons of Vegetable, Sunflower or Soybean Oil
- 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
- 1½ cup of Orange Juice
- 1 teaspoon of White Vinegar
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F or 180 C. Grease your pan well with butter or oil. This recipe works for a 8 inch round and square pan but I used a Bundt Pan for a fancy and festive feel.
2. Whisk together the whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and sugar.
3. Make 3 wells or depressions in the flour-mix: 2 small ones for the vinegar and vanilla essence and one largish one for oil.
4. Pour in the vinegar, vanilla essence and oil into the wells/depressions. Follow up with orange juice.
5. Mix gently till smooth. Be careful not to over-mix.
6. Pour batter into your pan, making sure it’s not too full. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes till done.
7. Insert a toothpick in the middle to check for done-ness. If it comes clean, it is done. Cool for five minutes and turn the cake over on a dish.
8. Dust the cake with little powdered sugar and cocoa powder and drizzle with chocolate sauce (optional) and decorate with orange slices.
To decorate the cake you can either use a ganache glaze or your favorite icing. But the cake is so moist and flavorful, that you can skip the glaze completely and have it plain with a cup of tea or coffee. Let your healthy eating goals for 2017 be more about sensible substitutions rather than deprivation. Here’s to a healthy happy New Year to all of us!
Sugar-free, Whole Wheat Chocolate Orange Cake
Ingredients
- 1½ cups of Whole Wheat Flour Atta
- ¼ cup of Cocoa Powder unsweetened and good quality
- 1 cup of Coconut Sugar
- 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda
- 6 tablespoons of Vegetable Sunflower or Soybean Oil
- 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
- 1½ cup of Orange Juice
- 1 teaspoon of White Vinegar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F or 180 C. Grease your pan well with butter or oil. This recipe works for a 8 inch round and square pan but I used a Bundt Pan for a fancy and festive feel.
- Whisk together the whole wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and sugar.
- Make 3 wells or depressions in the flour-mix: 2 small ones for the vinegar and vanilla essence and one largish one for oil.
- Pour in the vinegar, vanilla essence and oil into the wells/depressions. Follow up with orange juice.
- Mix gently till smooth. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Pour batter into your pan, making sure it's not too full. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes till done.
- Insert a toothpick in the middle to check for done-ness. If it comes clean, it is done. Cool for five minutes and turn the cake over on a dish.
- Dust the cake with little powdered sugar and cocoa powder and drizzle with chocolate sauce (optional) and decorate with orange slices.
Hi Hema,
Could you please tell me what the weight of the cake using exactly your recipe is?
Hi,
It will be around 1 kg of cake.
Hi,
I plan to bake this cake as a double layered cake. I want to split it in two and spread a layer of ganache in between. Can I bake a taller cake in a smaller pan, i.e, 6″? Or should I double all the ingredients and bake 2 cakes? Also, how much in advance can i bake and how do I store it before consuming?
Hi Sneha,
You can bake the cake twice with the ingredients. If you have a big tin or a container then you can double the cake quantity that is been given but please make sure to taste and check the batter. And then you can bake it, cut, add ganache as the usual process. Before adding ganache, the cake needs to be cooled down. So once everything is ready, you can keep it in fridge for an hour before the event and then you can keep it in room temperature or can immediately cut and serve. The left over pieces can be stored in an air tight container. But please finish it off in a day or two. Best to eat fresh 🙂
Hi can sugar be substituted by organic jaggery ?
Hi,
Yes, you can use jaggery instead of coconut sugar.
Hi…very nice recipe…thanks for sharing
In case i want to use eggs, how many do i need to add?
Hi Priya,
Thank you 🙂 2 eggs can be added, but all the ingredients has to be adjusted accordingly. You can try different cake recipes (using eggs) from our website dear.
Hi. We are supposed to use fresh orange juice for this recipe right?
Yes, It has to be fresh orange juice.
Superb recipe. I am following your blog and all posts. All are awesome. Can you please suggest what kind of oven to be purchased for baking cookies and cakes? FYI, i am not a regular baking person; It is just to start with for the kids to have healthy cookies at home. Please suggest!
If you want to have a oven just for cookies and cakes you can go for a regular OTG. But if you would love to grill Pizza or tikkas also better to go with a convection oven. LG and Samsung convection micro ovens are good.