The best low calorie chocolate cake
A fluffy, soft and super moist chocolate cake with a creamy chocolate frosting. This low calorie chocolate cake is the ultimate chocolate dessert to indulge in whilst in a calorie deficit. At just 68 calories a slice, this entire chocolate cake contains fewer calories than 1 slice of regular chocolate cake! And the best part? You need just 1 bowl, a handful of ingredients and 15 minutes to whip up your own delicious low calorie chocolate cake.
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Okay so of all the low calorie dessert recipes I have ever made, this is by far the best and most indulgent. Filled with decadent, fudgy chocolate goodness with every bite, this low calorie chocolate cake is what calorie deficit dreams are made of.
This chocolate cake is definitely on par with regular chocolate cakes. It tastes like the most indulgent and rich chocolate cake ever. At just 274 calories for the ENTIRE cake, there is no need to stop at 1 slice!
I still can not get over this recipe. Seriously, 68 calories for a delicious slice of chocolate cake?!? You don’t even need to be in a calorie deficit to enjoy this one! This recipe is so simple, easy and quick too!
It may seem impossible to lose weight whilst enjoying all of your favorite foods but trust me, it is far from impossible. There are tons of low calorie desserts to enjoy in a calorie deficit but if you’re looking for a super rich, indulgent chocolate cake, this is the recipe for you!
Low calorie chocolate cake
If you have a major sweet tooth like me and are trying to lose weight, you are in for quite the treat. This ultra rich and decadent chocolate cake is an absolute dream. It is a fluffy, moist chocolate sponge topped with smooth and creamy low calorie chocolate frosting.
Although this recipe technically contains 4 servings, I would honestly eat it all to myself! It is the perfect low calorie chocolate cake for one as it is so low in calories.
Why you’ll love this recipe:
- Bakes in just 15 minutes!
- Easily made in one bowl.
- Requires just 6 ingredients for the cake AND frosting!
- Super rich, indulgent, moist and decadent.
- This recipe can easily be made gluten-free.
- The BEST low calorie chocolate cake ever!
Ingredients
Exact ingredient quantities can be found at the bottom of this page.
To make the best low calorie chocolate cake you will need:
- Egg – This recipe calls for just 1 egg. The egg provides the structure for this low calorie chocolate cake.
- Stevia or granulated sweetener – Any granulated sweetener will work for this recipe. Stevia is my personal favorite and is the closest in taste to sugar.
- Plain/all-purpose flour – This recipe calls for plain or all-purpose flour. For a gluten free alternative, you can use gluten free flour or oat flour.
- Unsweetened cocoa powder – Unsweetened cocoa powder is the secret to getting that dark, intense chocolate flavor without any added sugars or calories.
- Baking powder – Baking powder helps the cake rise.
- Full-fat yogurt – This recipe contains very little fat and therefore calls for full-fat yogurt. This adds moisture to the cake giving it that classic soft and fluffy texture. You could use low-fat yogurt in a pinch but the cake may be a little dry.
- 0 calorie icing sugar – 0 calorie icing sugar keeps this recipe sugar-free. If you don’t have any 0 calorie icing sugar to hand, regular icing sugar works too but it adds a few extra calories.
How to make low calorie chocolate cake
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C (356°F).
- Make the frosting by mixing the yogurt, cocoa powder and 0 calorie icing sugar until smooth. Set aside in the fridge.
- Using an electric hand whisk, beat together the egg and stevia until light and fluffy. Mix in the yogurt and then fold in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder until well combined.
- Transfer the batter to a 5-inch cake pan and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool before frosting. Cut the cake into 4 slices, serve and enjoy!
Top tips
Don’t over mix the batter – When folding in the dry ingredients, do so gently. The thick egg is what gives this cake volume so you don’t want to deflate it! Fold the ingredients in until the batter is well combined but try not to over do it.
Chill the frosting – The frosting is already quite thick but to really give it that thick, creamy ganache feel, chill it in the fridge. I like to make the frosting first and set it in the fridge whilst the cake bakes and cools.
Allow the cake to cool – If you add the frosting to the cake before it cools, it will melt. Make sure to allow the cake to cool completely before adding the frosting.
Storage
This cake is best served the day it is made. If you have any left over cake (although I doubt you will ;)), store it in an air tight container in the fridge. The cake will last for up to 5 days but the longer it is in the fridge, the drier it will get.
more low calorie cakes…
70 Calorie Chocolate Cake
Equipment
- Electric whisk
- Medium bowl
- Rubber Spatula
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 50 g stevia or granulated sweetener
- 50 g full-fat yogurt
- 25 g plain/all-purpose flour
- 15 g unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
Frosting:
- 50 g full-fat yogurt
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp 0 calorie icing sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C (356°F).
- Make the frosting by mixing the yogurt, cocoa powder and 0 calorie icing sugar together until smooth. Set aside in the fridge.
- Using an electric hand whisk, beat together the egg and stevia on high until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.
- Mix in the yogurt and then fold in the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder until well combined.
- Transfer the batter to a 5-inch cake tin and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool before frosting. Cut the cake into 4 slices, serve and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Hi! Love the recipe but I had a question about the icing. Was I supposed to use full fat greek yogurt? I used regular full fat yogurt and the icing was too runny. End up making it a poke cake instead but still very good.
Hi Braden, yes Greek yogurt works better as it’s much thicker. I have also tried this recipe with regular yogurt and I didnt have the issue with it being runny so it could just be the brand of the yogurt!
Thank you for this marvellous recipe. Tried it with 0 fat yogurt and it didn’t keep it from turning out moist! I would definitely lower the amount of sweetener next time but that’s probably because mine is possibly a bit sweeter than others on the market. Great cake, filled my sweet tooth
Hi Rym, so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe! And yes, sweeteners are a bit tricky because they’re all different!
This was reallly delicious!! perfect recipe – will definitely be making it again. I used normal granulated sugar and was perfectly fine. Thanks
Hey! So glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Hello! Would you happen to know how many calories the cake would be without the frosting? Thank you!
Hi Brooke, this cake would have 216 calories without frosting, thats 54 calories per slice!
Loved it. It came out rich and moist. The perfect chocolate cake fix. I have added a bit of coconut to the batter and the icing and it tastes delicious.
Hi Lianie, thank you for the feedback. So glad to hear you loved this recipe 🫶
On a diet now after going on a holiday trip and really craving for something sweet and cake-y! This saved me from scrolling thru my ubereats. it’s so delish and very easy to make!
Hi, I’m so confused sorry – please can you help? when I pop the ingredients into a calorie counter (“my fitness pal” app – creat a new recipe) it calculates it at much higher than 70 calories (193 calories per portion, and that’s without the icing and using nonfat yogurt!). BUT , this is using the ingredients at 4x the recipe listed – which I was assuming is for four people? Is that right? What does 1x , 2x etc mean at the top of the recipe? It must be 4x for 4 people, because under 1x ingredients listing it only calls for 25 g of flour, which can surely not be enough for a whole cake? Or is it? ((
Hi Jen, I’m sorry that you’re having issues with the calories for this recipe. I also use Myfitnesspal to calculate the calories and macros for my recipes and I think I see where the issue is. 4x just means 4x the recipe not 4 servings! 1x is the recipe when you’re making just 1 cake so the ingredients and quantities are for one cake which serves 4. 4x would be for 4 cakes which serve 16. I hope that helps! Ps, I know 25g of flour seems like a little, but coupled with the cocoa powder, it is more than enough for this cake!
Hi Veera! Do you think egg replacer would work in this recipe?
Hi Rina, I haven’t personally tried it with egg replacer but I think it should work. Which egg replacer were you planning to use?
Hi Veera, thanks for your reply! I was thinking of just using Bob’s Red Mill Egg Replacer – do you reckon that would work?
Hi Rina, that should work fine. The only thing is the cake may be a little flatter. But if you use a 5″ cake tin it shouldn’t be too flat. Hope you enjoy!
I made about 4 cupcakes. It was quite tasty for my first try! I just add whipped cream. But I love how easy this is to make and I look forward to playing with flavors the next time (maybe a little coffee, vanilla, etc…)
What’s the music playing in the background of the youtube vid?
Hi Kim, unfortunately I don’t have a proper name for it. It’s a stock audio I use and it’s titled ‘wine and lipstick’. Hope that helps!
Hello, I don’t know what 50 g full fat yogurt is? I don’t understand your g’s in your recipes. Can you please tell how much h’s are in the low calorie chocolate cake?? Can you please write your recipes in English also, please???
Thank you,
Linda
Hi Linda, sorry you’re having a hard time understanding this recipe. It is written in English so I’m not sure how I can help you there. 50g (50 grams) of full fat yogurt is just a measurement and I’m not sure what you mean by ‘h’s’ so I don’t know how to help with that. Apologies if this hasn’t been very helpful but I’d be more than happy to help if you can please clarify!
You can Google “convert 50g to cups”
This is it! Thank you for the fabulous recipe. I did make some changes because of what I had available at home. I’ll share my changes, not because I think anything is wrong with this recipe, but for inquiring minds like mine, wondering… “will such and such work?” 🙂 I used 20 g oat flour and 10 g all purpose flour. I also only had Carbmaster vanilla yogurt (no fat really). I like a moist cake so I added 1/4 c unsweetened applesauce. For sweetener, I added 5 packets of stevia in the raw just to the batter but the yogurt is sweetend with a sugar free sweetener as well. I also added 3 drops of pure vanilla. I sprayed the pan with nonstick spray, but the center stuck and it fell apart. I just scraped it out and put it back together and it was fine. This was exactly the chocolate cake fix I needed and Myfitnesspal calculated my version of the recipe at 74 cal, 11 g carbs, 2.3 g fat, and 4.8 g protein. I will definitely make again!
Hi Ashley, I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! I’ll leave this comment here in case anyone else is looking for substitutes 🙂
I made this for my husband and he absolutely loved it! Thank you for posting this!
If I used this recipe for cupcakes how many would it make roughly?
Hi Shayla, this should give you roughly 4 cupcakes!
How many days can it be stored in the fridge?
2-3 days before it starts to dry out!
Can you use Greek yogurt? What flavor yogurt is best? Chocolate or plain, etc?
Hi Wendy, you can use Greek yogurt! I would recommend plain yogurt over flavored 🙂
Could I substitute granulated sweetener for liquid stevia?
Hi, you can! I would recommend using around 30ml of liquid sweetener and decreasing the yogurt to 40g. Let me know how this turns out 🙂
Can you use zero fat yogurt instead?
The cake would come out a little dry with 0% fat yogurt. It’s better to use full fat to get a moist cake that’s still low in calories. If you’re really wanted to decrease the calories though, low-fat yogurt is the better alternative.
I am so obsessed with this cake! I didnt have any stevia so I used a low calorie sweetener so it didn’t work out to be 70 calories for me but it was still worth it 🤤
Perfect! Just what I was looking for. It was just a little sweet but I have a sweet tooth so went down a treat. Will definitely be trying your other cakes!
Hi Anita, so glad you enjoyed this recipe! I have a massive sweet tooth too so you’ll find a lot of my recipes are super sweet too haha!
Delicious 🤤 ! I tried it without the icing (didn’t have 0 calories icing sugar & didn’t want the extra calories…) it was still yum! However, I added a little bit less stevia as I didn’t want it to be overly sweet and it worked fine!
Definitely a favourite guilt free treat 💖.
Thank you for sharing and will be trying more recipes 🥰
You’re so welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! I hope you enjoy any others you try just as much 🙂