Recipe || Low Fat Sugar Free Passion Cakes

Happy V-day you mega babes!

I can’t say we celebrate Valentine’s particularly, as it’s our anniversary at the end of the month so it’s always seemed a little bit overshadowed. However, although some people pass it off as a commercialised day of tacky nonsense, I have no problem with people celebrating all things love and passion….see what I did there?? Oooh passion!

Since starting Slimming World, I’ve been determined to enjoy it as much as possible and rather than cutting out all treats, instead I’ve been moderating the number of naughty things I’ve put in my mouth, and where possible, baking alternatives. If you saw my January Lovely Things post, you might have seen these little babies, low fat, sugar free passion cakes! Quite a few people have asked for the recipe, so I’ve written up the slightly adjusted version from the SW website for you. Basically a glorified carrot cake, I was incredibly dubious whether they’d ever a) bake well and b) taste good. The verdict?

Delish!

In fact, they genuinely do taste like carrot cake, are really quick and easy to rustle up and give you that little hit from a sweet treat. Apologies for the dubious photos, I’d cooked up the first batch of passion cakes late on a Sunday evening at Adam’s mum’s house and didn’t have the time or patience to wait until it was light enough to take decent photos! I missed the taster session at my group this week, so I’m tempted to bake a double batch this weekend so that I can take more beautiful pictures, and then share them out to say soz. Seems ironic doesn’t it, taking cake to a slimming group (but if you ever follow it, you’ll be pleased to know each of the passion cakes are only 1 syn!)

Ingredients

• 3 medium eggs
• 6 tbsp granulated Stevia
• 75g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp ground mixed spice
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 175g grated carrot

For the topping:

• 110g Quark
• 1 tbsp granulated Stevia
• 1 tsp vanilla essence/paste
• Orange zest/peel

Passion Cakes – Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas Mark 4. Line eight deep muffin tins with paper cases. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and 6tbsp Stevia until pale, thick and frothy – the mixture should be thick enough to hold a trail from the beaters.
2. Sieve in the flour and spices. Add the carrot and, using a metal spoon, gently fold the ingredients together using a figure-of-eight action, taking care not to beat the mixture.
3. Spoon into the muffin cases to fill them and bake for 20 minutes until firm and lightly golden. Set aside to cool in the tin.
4. Meanwhile, make the frosting: beat together the quark, vanilla essence and 1 tbsp Stevia and chill in the fridge until required.
5. To serve, spread some of the frosting over each muffin and sprinkle with a little of the orange zest or caramelise your orange peel in stevia and a few drops of water over a medium heat.