Chocolate brownies made with diet coke.

These chocolate brownies are amazing with ice cream and berries, they are gooey, chocolatey and generally just yummy. Even my other half loved them and went back for seconds! They are just as simple to make as the recipes that use lemonade.

For this recipe you will need:

A pack of brownie mix
A half of a can of diet coke

I used Morrisons own brand brownie mix, it serves 12 both on the pack and in reality and makes brownies that I calculated to be 4.5 syns each.

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius

You make these just like the other recipes. Add the coke to the mix and stir until its smooth then put it in the oven for 20 minutes.

Slimming world chocolate cake

Now although I love the food choices from Slimming world and the fact that you can eat whatever you want if you allow for it and syn it I am disappointed with their cake recipes. To date I haven't found a cake that actually tastes cakey and has the right texture to really satisfy my cake cravings, which I don't get all that often but when I do I want something that tastes like proper cake. So for all of you reading this that are currently living the slimming world lifestyle (because its more of a lifestyle than a diet) this cake doesn't include any heavy whisking of egg whites then adding sweetener and throwing it into the oven before it collapses and hoping to god that this recipe is the one that will taste like cake and not sweet omelette.

I am in general opposed to using any sort of cake mix from a box, they normal taste of just sugar but after all slimming and no cake you get a little desperate. I have to admit I felt dirty all over using a box mix but at least it was Betty Crocker, which as far as I know is the BMW of the cake mix world.

So this is my low syn chocolate fairy cake recipe, It is 3 syns a cupcake.

Makes 36 fairy cakes


1 box of Betty Crocker Devils food cake mix.
1 can of diet coke (330ml)
2 eggs
36 standard size cupcake cases (not the slightly larger ones or muffin cases. These are like the small white ones your mum used to make fairy cakes in)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius or gas mark 4 (according to Google)

Empty the box mix into a mixing bowl or large dish. Crack the eggs into the mix and add the can of coke.

Mix the recipe well, divide it between 36 fairy cake cakes and cook it for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle cake come out clean.

I found the mix looked grainy when I was done mixing it but it still cooked well. It should be ok as long as there are no lumps of power left in it.

These cakes taste really nice on their own but I know what your thinking a proper fairy cake always has an icing or topping on it right? Well do not fear for I have just the recipe, and everyone on the slimming plan will have already made and likely have the ingredients for in the cupboard already.

Quark frosting

1 tub of Quark (which is a light soft cream cheese) any size
2 sachets of chocolate options drink, which ever flavour you want

Mix them both together and divide between the cakes.

Now if you were to eat all of this frosting in one go it would be 4 syns, but when it's over 36 cupcakes it is effectively syn free because it does change the overall syn value of the cakes.

Lemon cake slices

So I've been experimenting with baking using lemonade and coke. It's been quite fun, so far I have only used cake mixes but they come out so amazing.

This lemon cake went down a treat at my last taster day. It's moist, lemony and best of all tastes like regular every day cake not something made to be low fat.

I forgot to take pictures of this and there isn't any left, so I will add pictures when I make it again.

For this recipe you will need two ingredients!

1x Betty Crocker Sunny Lemon Cake Mix
1x Bottle or can of any type of diet lemonade.

Measure out about 130ml of the lemonade, but don't drink the rest yet.

Mix the lemonade with the cake mix until its smooth and looks like cake batter, if you think it looks too thick for cake add a little more lemonade until it looks right.

Put it into a prepared 7 inch square cake tin and bake for 20 minutes until its a light brown and a skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean.

Leave it to cool of 10 to 15 minutes before you put it on the cake rack. Be careful when you transfer it because it comes out very soft.

When its cool slice it then ice it if you want to.

Quick Microwave sponge cake

I tend to make this cake as a last minute dessert. Its, super quick and easy to make and tastes great with custard!

Lemon curd microwave cake

This recipe serves 3 but is very easy to double or triple.

Ingredients

2 oz of self raising flour

2 oz of sugar

2oz of butter of margarine

1 egg

2 tbsp of water

Optional additions

Chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, glacé cherries

Jam, lemon curd, maple syrup or golden syrup 

Greasy a microwave safe pudding basin with some better of margarine.

In a mixing bowl mix all of the ingredients for the cake together. If you want to add any, fruit, nuts or chocolate then mix them in too.

Put the mix into the pudding basin and cover loosely with cling film. Microwave on full power for 5 minutes.

The bowl will be very hot when you take it out of the microwave so make sure you use oven gloves.

I find that if I want to add jam or syrup to my cake its nicer just to turn the cake out onto a plate, warm the jam or syrup and pour it over the top of the cake. 

This cake tastes just as nice plain with or without custard if you are looking for something simple.

**This is not a slimming world recipe**