A sugar-free single girl’s definition of heaven.

Mother Nature’s on crack today, dudes.  I mean, I had to drag my damn long johns back out.  And then had that wonderful dilemma of “what outerwear do I put on?”  Half-way through April, and they’re calling for everything from rain to freezing rain to ice pellets to snow.  Yesterday, it was +25-ish.  Today, it’s supposed to drop to –4 this afternoon.

I ended up in my winter coat and rubber boots.  I seriously have no idea if this was an appropriate choice.

I’m good with April rain.  Really, I am.  April freezing rain & snow??  Not so much.

Anyways.  Nothing we can do about it, right?  No point in whining.  Moving on.  To happier topics.

I don’t know how it happened exactly, but yesterday I discovered heaven.

I think it somehow developed when I couldn’t stop day-dreaming about my sister-in-law’s sugar-free vegan chocolate walnut cake, which I told you about yesterday.  I googled, looking for the recipe.  Couldn’t find anything that sounded like it.  But somewhere between there and Pinterest and God only knows what else I was clicking upon, I somehow came across it…

Chocolate Covered Katie.

Have you guys ever heard of this blog?  This blog… this blog totally made my day.

Chocolate Covered Katie is a dessert blog.  And not just any dessert blog… it’s a healthy dessert blog.

On a day when I couldn’t stop day-dreaming about chocolate cake, Chocolate Covered Katie came to the rescue with this little recipe called “One Minute Chocolate Cake In a Mug”.

I’ve seen recipes before for easy-to-make desserts, whipped together in mugs and baked quickly in the microwave.  But this was the first time I’ve actually tried one.

And ohmygodiminserioustrouble.

This was amazing.  Sinful.  Decadent.  Delicious.  I still can’t believe I made it in a mug.  And it was sugar-free.  And it only took a few minutes.

How the hell am I NOT going to make this dessert every.single.day.?!?!

You can find the original recipe here.  I made a few adjustments to mine, so here’s my twist on things:

One-Minute Chocolate Cake In a Mug

• 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. Stevia in the Raw
• 3 tsp. coconut oil, melted
• 3 Tbsp. unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine dry ingredients in a mug and mix very well.  Add liquid and stir well.  Microwave 30-40 seconds (mine took a minute, but my microwave doesn’t seem to be very powerful).

And… ta-da!

Then, Chocolate Covered Katie suggests, top it with a healthy fudge frosting, such as her Reeces Pieces Frosting.

Well, sure, why the hell not?

Here’s my take on that one:

Reeces Pieces Frosting

• 1/4 cup of PB2 mixed with 2 Tbsp. water to create peanut butter (or just use 1/4 of real peanut butter)
• 4-8 tsp. pure maple syrup (I used 6, it was a bit too sweet)
• 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 4 tsp. unsweetened almond milk
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix everything together vigorously.  (She says to blend in a food processor or Magic Bullet… I just whipped it together by hand).

She also says to store leftover frosting covered in the fridge.  To that, I say, “What leftover frosting????”

Yes, this frosting recipe probably made enough for 2 mug cakes.  But I only made one cake, and I someone managed to lick up every drop of icing… So sue me.   Mine didn’t turn out really the consistency of what I consider to be icing – it was thinner, more like what you’d find come oozing out of chocolate lava cake.  Next time, I might try less milk and syrup. But regardless, I poured it on top of the mug cake, and then when I got down a layer, I poured more in, and it was… so.freaking.amazing.

The scary part is that this was so easy to make, that I could definitely see myself on a low-willpower-day going back to make a second one.  The good news is that yesterday, I didn’t have enough cocoa powder in the house to make more than one.  Otherwise, I could’ve been in major serious big-time trouble.

It is really awesome, though, that many of the desserts and recipes on her blog are single-servings.  If I could ever get my willpower under control, it really is the perfect place for me to turn to when my sweet tooth gets the best of me.  Healthy dessert recipes that taste delicious, and seem tailor-made for the single girl?

It really is my kind of heaven!

And even by eating all of the frosting, the whole shebang was only about 250 calories.  Based on the nutritional information off the website, and the little tweaks I made to the recipes, I figure the actual cake part was about 140 calories and the full go of icing was 100 calories.

I can see myself turning to this website often in the future, as there were so many tempting recipes to try.  I’ve talked a lot over the past few weeks about my intentions to over-dose on sugar on Sunday (and probably for a few days after that), but in truth, I’d like to keep myself as sugar-free & healthy in the dessert department as possible.  It’s just that some days, fruit doesn’t cut it.  From what I can tell from the website perusing I’ve done, Katie will be able to come to my rescue again and again on those particular days.

I think tonight I shall try her Single-Lady Carrot Cake…