But if you’re on a health kick you need to be picky about what cakes you eat, whether it’s because you don’t want to eat too many calories, or whether you want to eat more fruits and vegetables because of the many health benefits you get from their vitamins and minerals.
The good news is that I’ve been scouring the net to find the most mouth watering yet relatively healthy cake recipes around, and in this article I’ll be sharing my findings with you.
I’ve personally hand-picked these recipes and actually tried them out myself so I can testify to how great they taste.
Let’s get this shortlist off to a great start – this delicious chocolate cake is not only free of added sugar, but it’s also fat free as well! And as a result, it’s very low in calories, coming in at less than 100 calories per slice.
It’s made with such ingredients as cocoa powder, sweetener, apple cider vinegar, applesauce, and vanilla extract. And it’s ready to eat in just half an hour.
This is hands down one of the best healthy carrot cake recipes I’ve ever tried.
It’s made with a combination of almond and coconut flour, and is packed with the likes of coconut, crunchy pecans, and fruity raisins. And it’s flavored with ground cinnamon and nutmeg, and sweetened with maple syrup.
It features a delectable cream cheese frosting (which you can easily make dairy free) and it’s both paleo diet friendly and entirely gluten-free to boot!
This is a great cake for those who enjoy the mild taste of apple in their apple dessert rather than mainly sugar. And it’s just 329 calories per serving.
It comes out deliciously moist and is packed with healthy ingredients like yogurt and fresh apples, and is flavored with lemon zest and juice, and cinnamon. And it uses unrefined sugar rather than regular sugar.
The great thing about bananas is that they provide slow release carbs, so they don’t give you a huge spike in your blood sugar levels, which is something you might want to watch out for. Bananas are also high in healthy potassium.
This particular recipe for banana bread is also low in fat, and comes in at just 154 calories per serving. And I can testify it tastes delicious.
This recipe features healthy ingredients including zucchini, parsnip, carrot, and dried apricots, and is flavored with the likes of desiccated coconut, ground cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and ginger.
And it has the most delicious pistachio praline to dress the cream cheese frosting.
This fruit bread is so sweet and delicious, it’s more like cake. It features good, healthy ingredients such as wholemeal self-raising flour, sultanas, dried apricots, skim milk, and chopped almonds.
It’s very much a budget friendly recipe, and it’s super simple to make. And it tastes amazing when toasted.
This chocolate bread dish is both very chocolatey and very moist. And it’s relatively healthy, it’s low in sugar, and it uses unsweetened cocoa powder, dark chocolate chips, and whole wheat flour. Plus, it uses fresh zucchini.
And if you ask me, the use of ground cinnamon makes an excellent finishing touch.
Mmm…this lemon cake is so light and moist and refreshing. And it’s relatively low in fat.
It features caster sugar and lemon juice for the lemon syrup, and the cake itself is made with healthy ingredients like polenta, ground almonds, and natural yogurt.
The recipe yields 12 servings, and each comes in at less than 250 calories.
This recipe is to die for! It features such ingredients as Greek yogurt, ground pistachios, and the frosting is topped off with candied mandarin, made with the likes of fresh mandarins, mandarin juice, lime juice, and vanilla bean paste. And because there’s no flour, it’s also 100% gluten-free.
If, like me, you’re something of a coffee lover, you will just adore this cinnamon swirl coffee cake. It’s made with wholesome ingredients like quinoa, chickpea, almond, and coconut flour, together with fruity applesauce and mashed banana.
There’s a delicious coconut sugar and cinnamon filling, and a crunchy crumb topping, made with rolled oats and yet more flour and coconut sugar.
Believe me, this orange and cardamom cake tastes as good as it looks! It’s light and zesty, thanks to the puréed whole orange, and the polenta gives it an amazing golden color.
To make it healthy, the puréed orange replaces any butter or oil, and instead of sugar, it uses the sweetener xylitol. Meanwhile, the ground almonds and cardamom provide a nice, delicate flavor.
This healthy cake recipe is absolutely yummy! The cake part is made with ingredients such as semolina, almond meal, natural yogurt, shredded coconut, finely grated lime zest, and lime juice.
You top the cake with whipped cream, a drizzle of delicious lime syrup, and a pretty grated lime zest garnish.
Now, this is not your ordinary Black Forest gâteau! It tastes just as delicious and decadent, but it’s way healthier. There’s no added sugar, and it happens to be 100 % gluten-free to boot.
It’s made with healthy cake ingredient alternatives such as almond meal, sweetener, and margarine. And for flavor it’s got morello cherries, cherry jam, and vanilla extract.
I just love the use of cranberries in cake – it’s just so fruity and sweet. What’s more, this cranberry cake recipe can be made dairy-free and there’s no refined sugar or flour.
In addition to the cranberries, you also get flavors such as honey, lemon juice and coconut. I don’t know which I love more, the sweet, fruity cranberry layer or the crumbly top layer.
Who doesn’t love a gooey, indulgent chocolate brownie, am I right?!
Well, in this recipe, the old-fashioned chocolate brownie has had a complete healthy makeover.
The secret ingredient is mayonnaise, which is made with eggs and oil, key ingredients in cake baking. This not only keeps the brownies nice and moist, but it also dramatically reduces the fat content.
Go on – treat yourself to this deliciously fruity upside-down cake, it’s amazing!
It features such flavorful ingredients as oranges, vanilla extract, and sweet dessert wine. And it uses extra virgin olive oil instead of butter to make it healthier. It comes out super moist and rich, and it features a delicious orange glaze on top.
This chocolate ganache cake is so rich and decadent, you’ll barely believe that it’s actually paleo-friendly. It doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, and it pairs flavors such as dark chocolate, coconut sugar, coconut cream, and almond meal.
This amazing beetroot and chocolate cake is moist, delicious, and packed with healthy nutrients. And all you have to do is blend all the ingredients, pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake.
The beetroot flavor is very subtle, and there’s plenty of fiber, folate, manganese, potassium, and vitamins A and C. It needs less than 5 minutes of prep time, and it’s just 281 calories a slice.
Blueberry muffins are a breakfast time classic, but by following this recipe you can make your breakfast muffin much healthier, thanks to ingredients like mashed bananas, wholemeal flour, apple purée, and natural low fat yogurt.
Wrap Up
I hope you’ve enjoyed browsing through my shortlist of the best healthy cake recipes on the net. I hope that you have picked one or two to try out and that you have a great time making and eating them – enjoy!
There’s nothing better than sitting down after a long, stressful day with a good craft or hobby - right?
Hi, my name is Helena Forsite and I am a self-proclaimed crafter. I love everything to do with DIYs, baking, crafting, and more!
When I was younger, fresh out of college, I developed a pretty strong anxiety disorder. I found it difficult to go to work, socialize with friends, or even get out of the house at all.
