Pen and Sword/White Owl Books sent me one of their latest recipe books - Baking Without Sugar by Sophie Michell. As many of you know, I try to stick to a low carb, sugar free way of eating when I’m not out stuffing my face for blogging purposes.

I eventually managed to trial one of the recipes and I have to say it was super easy to follow and going sugar-free does not mean taste-free.

The cake was most definitely denser, almost the consistency of a brownie but with all the dark chocolate and cocoa powder, it most certainly packed a full on chocolate whack and it was fairly sweet in its own right.

Recipe for Chocolate Cake - gluten free and sugar free from Sophie Michell, Baking without Sugar and White Owl Books

Above is the recipe taken straight from the book.

Using organic coconut flour and xylitol (Erythritol) as substitutes for flour and sugar, the other ingredients are fairly standard and you should be able to get from a supermarket. The only difficult ingredient to get hold of was the Erythritol Icing Sugar, which you can order from the Amazon link below.

Recipe is super easy. All the dry ingredients go in one bowl and mix together.

• 100g cocoa powder

• 50g coconut flour

• 3 tsp baking powder

• pinch of salt

• 125g xylitol

All the wet ingredients go in another bowl. Mix well together

• 6 eggs

• 75g melted butter

• 180ml sour cream

• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Then combine both and mix really well. Split between two pans (depending on the size of your baking tins) and pop into the oven at 160 C for around 30 minutes. If you are using one large tin as per Sophie’s instructions then stick with what she suggests - 45-50 minutes baking time.

Time to make the frosting.

I melted some Mackies 70% dark chocolate over a pan of simmering water and added in the butter then followed the instructions as per the recipe. Again fairly straight forward to do.

Once the cakes were baked, I cooled them on a cooling rack then started to assemble.

Chocolate cake layer, frosting, second chocolate cake layer and more frosting. I had enough frosting to decorate around the edges too.

And it’s done! A perfect treat for these very uncertain days.

I did add sugar to my final finished cake though, by adding these dark cherries in syrup to the top! Naughty Naughty - but that’s the joy of recipes, you can switch them up or strip them bare to suit your tastes.

Baking Without Sugar has loads of wonderful recipes in it and I am keen to bake the Earl Grey Chai Muffin Bites and the Bourbon Roasted Peach Cheesecake Pie which I might switch out for Whisky and Nectarines (as I have these in the kitchen).

What I do love about this book is that Sophie doesn’t just cover delicious cakes but there are recipes inside for savoury dishes such as the Pepperoni, Chilli Tomato and Basil Pizza using mozzarella and almonds for the base; there are recipes for kitchen condiments such as Sugar free BBQ sauce and Ketchup; how to make sugar free jams and also some essential pastry basics like shortcrust pastry and fathead pastry.

You are most definitely what you eat, and if we can cut out some sugar from our diets without giving up on taste, then why not give it a go.

Baking Without Sugar is available to purchase online from Pen and Sword/White Owl Books for £18.99 www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Baking-without-Sugar/p/14295