Time for a cuppa ... and a slice of low carb Chocolate and Almond Cake

I know some of us do enjoy a sweet treat from time to time, whereas others completely avoid them. I do allow myself the occasional low carb sweet/dessert treat, and today I thought - why not make time for a cuppa! It's tea for me, or coffee if you'd prefer, and of course low carb cake!

This simple and quick recipe for a low carb chocolate and almond cake is from Ewelina who writes: "You don’t need many ingredients and about 40 minutes to make a cake (including baking time). The cake is very chocolaty and light. If you are not afraid of extra calories and a little bit of sugar serve it with scoop of vanilla ice-cream."

Ewelina uses "Splenda as a sweetener and Menier dark chocolate in this recipe." She says, "if you would like to make this cake even lower in carbohydrates use pure Stevia leaf (you will need just a teaspoon or so) and chocolate that is lower in carbs than 30g."

"Ingredients:
Makes 12 pieces
7g Carbs per piece/slice

200g dark chocolate, chopped (I used Menier with 30g carbs per 100g chocolate)
50g chopped almonds (I used flaked almonds as you can see on the picture but it worked fine)
115g butter, cut into small pieces
6 eggs, separated
Equivalent of 180 g sugar (I used 18g Splenda*)
1 tsp. pure almond extract
Almond flakes for decoration"

*You may ask ... "how come you used 18g of Splenda if the recipe calls for 180g of sugar? isn't it supposed to be equal?"
Ewelina says ..."Splenda is much lighter than sugar, you use the same amount when you measure with cups or spoons but not when you weight. For example 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of Splenda looks the same but sugar weighs about 10 times more"

"Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 180C 350F Gas Mark 4 and butter a 23 cm springform pan.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a large bowl over simmering water. Stir in almonds and set aside to cool slightly.
3. In a medium bowl using electric mixer whisk egg yolks and sweetener until mixture gets smooth and pale yellow. Slowly add the egg yolk mixture to melted chocolate and stir to combine. Stir in almond extract.
4. In a large bowl using electric mixer whisk the egg whites until firm peaks form. Using spatula fold in ¼ of egg whites to the chocolate mixture. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites (it takes some time but do it gently)

5. Pour the batter into the form and bake 20min. 

6. Cool slightly and decorate with almond flakes."

Words and recipe can be seen on Ewelina's blog here

hang on ... I'll just put the kettle on!

A variety of recipe ideas are within this blog, and not all may be suitable for you. If you may have any food allergies, or underlying health issues these must always be taken into account. If you are a diabetic and not sure how certain foods may affect your blood sugars, test is best, i.e. use your meter.

All the best Jan