Healthy Dessert Recipe: Cacao Lava Cakes by Nutritionist Phoebe Liebling

Looking for a healthy dessert recipe? Nutritional Therapist Phoebe Liebling is here for you.

We live in a very sweet world.

To say sugar is everywhere might be an understatement. Now, without wanting to sound like the fun police, eating lots of sweet things is something I tend to advise against. These tastebud-tantalising foods actually have larger effects on our health than we might realise.

Why is sugar bad for you?

When sugar enters our blood we have to control that pretty carefully. Our body responds by producing insulin. Insulin takes any of that sugar that we aren’t using for energy and stores it (hence the ‘Moment on the lips, Lifetime on the hips’ saying...). So yes, an excess of sweets will make us hold additional weight. Which is both irritating and a negative for our long-term health. But it’s actually abusing that responsive protective mechanism that can leave us the worst off.

Sugar and the insulin response.

When we repeatedly ask our body to produce insulin it will do so but my goodness it requires a lot of resources. To help itself along, our body will also start to downregulate its receptors to blood glucose. This means that the extra sugar circulating in our blood stream doesn’t get into our cells to cause damage whilst those insulin levels are trying to catch up. This is a double-edged sword. In the first place, this natural response means we do not get the building blocks for our cellular energy production in as effectively (cue tiredness and sweet cravings) but we also then have extra sugar bombing around in our blood causing all kinds of damage. Not. Ideal.

Protein: the secret ingredient for a healthy dessert recipe.

But it’s not all doom and gloom! We just need to be a tad more savvy when we fancy a treat. One of the easiest ways to turn the tables is to include more protein when you decide to dabble in a dessert. This is because protein will slow the release of sugars into the bloodstream. This means our insulin mechanism doesn’t have to respond so super fast. In other words: we get to have our cake, eat it, AND be comforted by the fact that our good old bodies are getting as much enjoyment out of it as those tantalised taste buds we mentioned earlier. Pretty awesome, hey! And because we couldn’t leave you with those truth bombs and not follow through... We of course have an incredibly indulgent and healthy dessert recipe for you.

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Healthy Dessert Recipe: CACAO WHEY LAVA CAKES

Makes 4

Ingredients:

• 30g dark chocolate (70% or above)
• 100ml coconut, oat or almond milk
• 1 tablespoon ground almonds or coconut flour for nut free
• 1 tablespoon raw cacao powder
• 2 tea spoon melted coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
• 1 large egg
• 30g (1 scoop / 1 sachet) Motion Nutrition Organic Raw Cacao Whey
• 1 tea spoon baking powder
• Pinch himalayan salt

Optional to serve: coconut or regular yoghurt, fresh raspberries

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 170°C. Lightly grease 4 silicone muffin cups with coconut oil then sprinkle a few ground almonds in the bottom, tipping them around so they stick to the oil forming a little skin.
2. Add your chosen milk and dark chocolate to a small pan. Warm slowly on a medium - low heat swirling or stirring every now and again to encourage it to blend with the milk.
3. Meanwhile measure the ground almonds/coconut flour, cacao powder, cacao whey, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
4. Remove your pan from the heat, add the maple and coconut oil. Mix, then pour into the dry ingredients. Stir then crack in the egg and mix that in too until you have a smooth batter.
5. Divide your mix between your muffin cups and back for 8 minutes, the top should be semi-set but still be a tad liquidy in the middle when you take them out.
6. Whilst in the oven prepare plates with generous spoonfuls of your chosen yoghurt and a few fresh berries, then whip those cakes out the oven, tip them out and grab a spoon!