Sugar free, gluten free - chocolate cake balls

Oh yes. You heard me right. Tonight is your lucky night.

I'd like to present you you the most decadent, chocolatey, rich, cakey dessert on a stick - The Low Carb Chocolate Cake ball!

This is a modified recipe from Healthy Indulgences. 

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Low Carb Chocolate Cake Balls

For the cake:

Ingredients:
1-15 ounce can of unseasoned black beans
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 tablespoons unsalted organic butter
1 cup Splenda (or whatever sweetener you like - I use Ideal)
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a small jelly roll cake pan with extra virgin olive oil cooking spray, or just grease it with a thin layer of butter.

Drain and rinse beans in a strainer or colander. Shake off excess water. Place beans, 3 of the eggs, vanilla, and salt into blender. Blend on high until beans are completely liquefied. No lumps! Whisk together cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. Beat butter with sweetener until light and fluffy. Add remaining two eggs, beating for a minute after each addition. Pour bean batter into egg mixture and mix. Finally, stir in cocoa powder and water (if using), and beat the batter on high for one minute, until smooth. Scrape batter into pan and smooth the top. Grip pan firmly by the edges and rap it on the counter a few times to pop any air bubbles.

Bake at 325 for about 20 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in to the middle of the cake comes out clean.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

1 8oz package of cream cheese

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 stick of butter

1/2 cup sweetener, powdered

Preparation:

Set cream cheese and butter out on the counter to soften and come to room temperature. 

Once softened, add to a bowl, and beat with a mixer until fully combined. Add in vanilla and your powdered sweetener, and mix completely. Knock down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is completely combined. 

If you do not have powdered sweetener (this is not the same as granulated!), add 1/2 cup of your sweetener into a spice/coffee grinder or food processor and blend until it is like powdered sugar. 

Making Cake Balls

Once the cake is out of the oven, set it on a wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes. You want the cake to remain slightly warm to the touch, but not hot. Remove the cake from the jelly roll pan, and crumble it up (yes...smash up your cake) into a large bowl.

Take your cream cheese frosting, and dump it into the bowl as well.

You should have something looking like this:

Combine the cake and frosting completely.It'll look like a thick, gooey, wonderful pile of chocolate. 

Put the "dough" into the fridge and let it chill for at least 30 minutes. You'll want it to firm up a bit so that you can roll it into balls.

Once the dough is chilled, you're ready to roll (HA! Get it? Ready to roll?!)

Get out a sheet pan and line it with a piece of parchment paper. Take tablespoon sized scoops and roll them into balls. You should get approximately 24 or so out of this recipe if you don't eat too much while you are making them.

Once all the balls are rolled out, set the sheet pan into the fridge and let them set another 30 minutes. Once set up, take small sticks (like popsicle sticks, but slightly smaller - you can get these at the grocery store, craft store, etc) and insert them into each ball.

You can stop here, or you can melt down some chocolate (dark, of course) and drizzle over the tops. You can also roll them in your favorite nuts. 

However you decide to finish them, they are SURE to be a hit!