This week I spent some time on the roof our our old house. I hate being on roofs and ladders. I’m not one of those people that likes heights and unstable ladders. Tony, on the other hand, it doesn’t phase. Now I’m willing to do a lot of things. I’ve shoveled snow in sub-zero temperatures, cleaned out stalls for our horses, and crawled into tight spaces to name a few. Roofs are a hard pass. No matter. I still ended up on the roof. Not going to lie, it sucked. The things we do to get the hard stuff done.

This week I starting with a recipe from Southern Living for Death by Chocolate. I’ve seen many recipes with the same name. This one looked interesting. This one is pretty loaded with carbs and saturated fat. I think I can lower both by skipping some of the butter and getting rid of the sugar. There are some really good replacements for the whipping cream too. Country Crock makes a great one. The only thing I noticed is that it is not as stable. I will have to use a stabilizer because this is a stacked dessert. Will this truly live up to its name? We’ll soon find out.

Here are the original stats:

Here’s what I changed:

• I replaced the sugars with their sweetener equivalents
• I replaced the flour with almond and coconut flours to lower the carbs.
• I replaced the pudding with a sugar free variety to lower the carbs.
• I removed the added salt to reduce the sodium.
• I increased the servings from 12 to 24 to lower the calories.

Here are the final stats:

Here is the final recipe:

Lower Carb Death by Chocolate

Serves 24

Cake

• 1 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar substitute
• 1 1/2 cup freshly brewed coffee
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, roughly chopped

Chocolate Crumble

• 3/4 cup almond flour
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup granulated sweetener
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

Whipped Cream

• 2 cups plant based heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup powdered sweetener
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

For Assembly

• 3 cups prepared instant sugar free chocolate pudding

1. Make the Cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9- x 13-in. baking dish and line bottom with parchment paper. Whisk together flours, cocoa, baking soda, and xanthan gum in a bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the brown sweetener, coffee, oil, and vinegar until sugar is dissolved. Add dry ingredients, and stir until no lumps remain. Pour into prepared baking dish, sprinkle surface evenly with chopped chocolate, and bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. (Note: a few crumbs may attach to the toothpick because this is a very moist cake.)
2. Make the Chocolate Crumble: Preheat oven to 300°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Stir all of the ingredients together in a large bowl until they form separate sandy clumps. Scatter the clumps across the prepared baking sheet evenly. Bake for 10 minutes, remove baking sheet from oven and stir the crumbles around before returning to the oven to bake for an additional 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
3. Make the Whipped Cream: Combine the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer, and whip on medium until soft peaks form. Sprinkle on the xanthan gum and whip until stiff peaks form.
4. For Assembly: Remove cake from baking dish by inverting the cake onto a clean surface. Clean and dry the 9- x 13-in. baking dish. Use a long serrated knife to cut through the middle of the entire cake, creating two separate 9- x 13-in. layers. Place one of the layers back into the cleaned baking dish. Spread half of the chocolate pudding evenly across the surface. Spread half of the whipped cream evenly on top of the pudding. Then sprinkle half of the Chocolate Crumble on top of the whipped cream. Repeat the process with the second layer of cake and the remaining pudding, cream, and crumble.