20 Healthy Cake Recipes That Taste Incredible

Written by Michael Matthews

Blood Orange Upside-Down Cake

This lightly sweetened cake is great with coffee or tea in the afternoon. And with fresh orange slices decorating the top, it would be a shame to cover it up with extra sugar in the form of frosting.

Like other upside-down cakes, it has a caramel top instead. This one has the distinctive flavor of cardamom, and the cornmeal goes well with the mixture of olive oil and Greek yogurt, used in place of butter.

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Vanilla Protein Cupcakes with Protein Glaze

Vanilla cupcakes might not seem as exciting as the off-the-wall flavors on Cupcake Wars. Yet then you’re missing the best part.

Since vanilla is a flavor that goes with everything, these can be topped with any kind of icing, glaze, or frosting. These have a whey protein glaze for maximum nutrition, but you could go for a thicker frosting with a scoop of vanilla whey isolate, chilled coconut cream, and shredded coconut.

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Birthday Cake Protein Blondies

When you’re craving cake but what your body needs is a post-workout snack, this protein bar provides the perfect compromise.

These look like white cake with sprinkles, but there’s no wheat flour in this recipe. The base of the batter is vanilla whey protein powder, plus a little coconut flour for flavor and texture.

Even the frosting is practically sugar-free with cream cheese, Greek yogurt, more whey powder, and just enough stevia to sweeten it up.

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Cardamom Chocolate Mousse Cake

This cake is for serious chocoholics. It replaces butter or oil with cacao butter, which can be bought as wafers or as big chunks that can be chopped up.

Either way, you’ll need to melt it in a double boiler – which is a fancy way of saying put a heat-resistant mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water.

With the steam trapped under the bottom of the bowl, it’ll provide a consistent, low heat to melt more delicate ingredients like chocolate or cacao butter.

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5-Ingredient Cake Batter Fudge

These mini treats will satisfy cake cravings without the flour or frosting. They’re not exactly low-fat snacks, but that’s because they’re made from a mix of cashew and coconut, making each square as filling as traditional fudge.

Even if you can’t find cashew butter, or prefer to save a few grams of fat as well as a few dollars, almond butter will be delicious in this recipe too.

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Protein Pop Tart Cakes

Can’t seem to leave the breakfast habit of Pop-Tarts in the past? Make this rich protein cake instead, filled with low-sugar jam of choice.

The one in the picture is thicker, more like a toaster strudel, which is great for dunking into a hot cup of coffee. If you prefer them to be thin and crispy like Pop-Tarts, roll out the dough to be thinner, and make three jam-filled protein cakes instead of two.

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Skinny Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cinnamon Glaze

Cupcakes can be incredibly decadent even without the frosting on top. Use a glaze instead, like in these gingerbread cupcakes, and you can save a couple hundred calories compared to buttercream. And with a drizzle of sugar on top, you can also use less sweetener in the cake itself.

It works as a topping with any flavor of cupcake. Try a citrus glaze on fruit cupcakes, or even a balsamic vinegar glaze on strawberry cake if you’re feeling inspired by the crazy combos on Cupcake Wars.

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Chocolate Coconut Flour Cake with Avocado Mousse Frosting

Even though cake can be delicious without frosting, sometimes it’s really the frosting that you’re craving more than the stuff underneath.

With this healthy dessert trick, you don’t have to forego the chocolate frosting. Just replace the butter or cream cheese with rich, creamy avocadoes. They’re already the right texture, so they don’t even need to be whipped to make a fluffy frosting. All the ingredients can be combined in a blender.

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Low-Fat Creamsicle Cake

Cake mix is easy to avoid if you have flour, sugar, and baking powder in your pantry. But when you’re looking for a way to upgrade that box, try out this creative cake recipe. Instead of following the package directions, all you need for awesome creamsicle flavor is Greek yogurt and orange juice.

To make this without the premade mix, you’ll need 2 1/2 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup non-fat dried milk, a teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda. Mix all that together whenever you have the time, and the homemade white cake mix can be stored in your pantry until you need it.

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Flourless Lemon Poppyseed Breakfast Cake

If you can have a lemon poppyseed muffin for breakfast, why not upgrade to healthy lemon cake?

The difference is mostly the frosting, which can be made out of protein powder and almond butter for a super-filling topping that’ll help power you through the day.

To make a version of this lemon cake that’s more like dessert, use a cream cheese frosting or one made out of coconut butter; recipes for both of those options are included on The Big Man’s World blog.

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Angel Food Cake in a Cup

Although making a mug cake in the microwave can be convenient, the result can be heavy and dry. Instead of trying to make the perfect moist chocolate cake, opt for this easy angel food version, which can make the base for any number of desserts depending on what else is in your kitchen.

Angel food cake turns any fresh fruit into a full-on dessert, and you can even turn it into a layered parfait with fat-free whipped topping.

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Kabocha Squash Spice Cake with Chai Caramel

It’s possible to make a sweet, decadent cake with hardly any added sugar. After a big holiday dinner, everyone will find room for a slice of this cake, and nobody will be the wiser that it has natural sugar from dates, which also add fiber and micronutrients like essential vitamins and minerals.

For even less added sugar, swap out the caramel topping for a creamy peanut butter frosting instead. Combine PB2 with twice as much Greek yogurt, adding liquid stevia or powdered erythritol to taste.

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Chocolate Beet Bundt Cake

Plain vanilla cake isn’t the only thing you can make in a bundt pan. This is a dense, fudgy cake that’s nearly fat-free thanks to applesauce, buttermilk, and an unexpected ingredient.

Grated carrots and zucchini are often used in baked goods, but this one uses another veggie: beets. They lend a slightly earthy flavor but mostly keep this cake moist without butter or oil.

Beets are often used as a natural food coloring for red velvet cake. If that’s what you’re going for here, replace a bit of the buttermilk with beet juice to add more color.

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Watermelon Cake

While whole fruit is definitely not a cake, you can still serve it like one using this method. This makes an incredible surprise for fruit lovers with not just watermelon but a thick coconut whipped cream.

It’s great for birthdays when you don’t want a super sweet dessert, yet still need a special way to celebrate.

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Almond-Orange Flan

This luxurious cake has a thick, velvety texture like flan, and yet it’s totally dairy-free. It’s made with almond milk instead, but otherwise the recipe is familiar.

Make caramel on the stove by boiling sugar and water, and then whisk together eggs and almond milk to make the custard. You’ll wind up with a dessert that looks just like flan. Instead of tasting creamy, though, it has a refreshing almond-orange flavor.

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Sugar Plum Protein Corn Cake

The ultimate summer cake, this dessert combines fresh plums and cornmeal, yet it has the macros of a protein bar. After this nutrient-dense cake, you won’t be left with that full-but-still-hungry feeling.

For this recipe, you’ll want to mix together rice and whey protein powders. Not only does that offer more variety in your diet, but it’ll help create a cakey texture that’s not too heavy and doesn’t have that springy texture from baking with too much whey.

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Apple Chickpea Cake with Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting

A flourless cake is often fudgy and rich, not crumbly like other cakes. So how does this recipe manage to do both? Wheat flour is replaced with chickpeas in this apple cake, which has several layers of thinly sliced apples in between the cake batter.

It’s like a layer cake with fresh fruit in the middle instead of sugary frosting. Top with a healthy cream cheese frosting, as shown, or serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt and drizzle of honey.

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High-Protein Cinnamon Cake Bars

Sunday mornings don’t feel complete with some kind of extra-awesome breakfast, whether you have a full-on brunch spread or just add bacon to your usual meal. One way to make any morning feel special is coffee cake, but it’s basically a dessert.

This version does away with the streusel, using a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar instead. That makes a low-fat cinnamon cake with less than 10 grams of sugar per piece.

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Banana Bread Pound Cake

While banana bread typically has a muffin texture, this one is a bit denser and less crumbly, making it into more of a pound cake. So basically you’re getting two baked goods in one with this low-fat cake, which has over 10 grams of protein per slice.

The best part about pound cake is that you don’t have to worry about making a topping too – or making the frosting or icing magically healthier. Just stir together the ingredients, starting with the dry goods and then adding the wet mixture, and then bake in a loaf pan. Let cool, slice, and serve.

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Carrot Cake Coffee Cake

Make coffee cake a bit lighter and more nutritious with carrots. Usually it’s just made from white flour, eggs, butter, and sugar – not exactly a healthy breakfast to have with your morning coffee.

To make this veggie-studded version even leaner, use Greek yogurt or applesauce instead of the oil. And, the icing can be replaced with protein if you mix together two scoops of vanilla whey with water or milk until it gets to a glaze consistency.

Cream cheese and vanilla extract can still be used in a protein icing but aren’t necessary.

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