Healthy Chocolate Cake Recipes

This easy-to-make chocolate cake is dark, moist, rich--and only dirties one bowl! Not quite as easy as boxed cake mixes, but those often contain trans fats. Our simple “from scratch” recipe gives you a home-baked cake with healthful canola oil and whole-wheat flour.

Ground almonds, almond flour and coconut sugar combine in this healthy, gluten-free cake recipe. Don't skip the dry sherry syrup! It gives this cake a complex, fruity flavor that results in an extra-moist cake. Serve with afternoon tea, brunch or as a special dessert.

This chocolate chip cake has an amazing moist, dense texture and a healthy profile with egg whites, buttermilk, canola oil and whole-wheat pastry flour. Plenty of chocolate chips give it rich flavor.

Inspired by the old-school, ultra-rich, mousselike chocolate cake that usually called for a whole pound of chocolate, half a dozen eggs and lots of butter, this enlightened rendition has deep bittersweet chocolate flavor and dense melt-in-your-mouth texture. No one will guess it's healthier. The secret is excellent natural cocoa powder and good-quality bittersweet chocolate, preferably with 70% cacao. Although the cake can be eaten once it's completely cool, it comes out of the pan much easier and even tastes better if it has been chilled at least overnight.

This rich, chocolaty Southern favorite has its own culinary mythology: a couple at the Waldorf-Astoria, a shared slice of bright red chocolate cake, a request for the recipe, and the surprise of later finding a $100 charge on their room bill. Maybe all desserts this good deserve a legend.

Some molten-cake recipes call for simply underbaking the batter so the middles stay lava-like, but mini cakes get done so quickly it's best to give them a filling that won't set up. These rich, mocha-flavored morsels are guaranteed to stay moist and gooey, owing to a simple mocha ganache in the middle. Serve the cakes with a scoop of low-fat coffee ice cream and garnish with a chocolate-covered espresso bean, if desired. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.

Our lightened-up version of a classic chocolate cupcake uses whole-wheat flour and less butter and sugar than the average cupcake. Topped with rich chocolate ganache frosting, these are a birthday party must-have.

You don't have to be a professional pastry chef to make fun decorated cupcakes. These chocolate cupcakes are made to look like the silly poop emoji and use three simple ingredients to accomplish their impressive look--chocolate frosting, candy eyes and marshmallows. Pureed sweet potato replaces butter in the healthy frosting for a birthday party treat kids and adults will love.

This healthy cake recipe is like a pumpkin-flavored version of Boston cream pie. Rather than the traditional round shape, we use a 9-by-13 pan to make a four-layer rectangular cake that looks fun and provides more layers of creamy goodness.

We use nonfat chocolate frozen yogurt and peppermint extract to create a flavorful and light ice cream cupcake with a chocolate cookie crunch that captures the classic mint chocolate chip ice cream combination.

Antioxidant-rich cherries and chocolate chips are folded into creamy frozen yogurt and layered on top of a crunchy cookie crust in your muffin tin for this twist on the classic Black Forest cake.

Sheet cakes are a potluck dream: the baking pan holds the cake and makes it wonderfully portable. This one is accompanied by an almond “cream” made from heavy cream and reduced-fat sour cream. Together, the cake and cream replicate the taste of Mexican chocolate with its undertones of almond and cinnamon. Or make cream cheese frosting and add 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.

These healthy chocolate cupcakes get a soft, moist texture from their not-so-secret ingredient: beets. The beets act as a natural red food dye, plus they bump up the fiber. Use red beets to give the cream cheese frosting a vibrant pink hue.

A bûche de Noël--a cake decorated like a yule log--is a traditional dessert served around Christmastime in France, Belgium, Canada and some other French-speaking countries. Our gluten-free recipe, which is just as tasty served cold as it is at room temperature, is lighter than air. The chocolate brown-butter génoise cake is easy to roll up and it's covered with a billowy espresso-spiked 7-minute frosting. We've substituted agave nectar for white sugar in the frosting. It's pretty garnished with meringue mushrooms and sugared rosemary.

Turn this moist, dense and truly chocolaty cake into an elegant dessert by garnishing each serving with a dollop of whipped cream, some fresh raspberries and a light dusting of cocoa. Note that this cake does not contain any leavening: beaten egg whites alone are used to lighten it.

When you have a craving for a comforting dessert, try this pudding cake, which forms its own rich-tasting sauce as it bakes. The coffee flavor is subtle, but it adds complex depth to the cake's flavor.

Sometimes we even stun ourselves. This ultra-rich and creamy chocolate cheesecake has less than 10 grams of fat per slice, making it one of our all-time best successes. We replaced the full-fat cream cheese in the original with pureed cottage cheese and reduced-fat cream cheese. To achieve a rich chocolate flavor, we used cocoa powder enhanced by a small amount of high-quality chocolate instead of 12 ounces chocolate chips.

Layers of hazelnut-and-chocolate meringue meld with refreshing raspberry sorbet. This cake should be made the day before serving.

This foolproof cake is one of our most popular recipes. Dutch-process cocoa is preferred here for its deep chocolate flavor.

Serve this dense, fudgy pudding cake with vanilla frozen yogurt.

The surprise ingredient in this chocolate cake--mashed potatoes--keeps it exceptionally moist.

This serve-from-the-pan cake is a winner at pot-luck suppers, classroom celebrations and picnics.

Serve this chocolate angel food cake with low-fat frozen yogurt and fresh fruit.