130 calorie chocolate peanut butter microwave cake

As you guys know, I’m a huge fan of microwave cakes. In fact, it seems like everyone is, considering my peanut butter cake and Nutella cake are two of the most popular recipes on the blog. And for good reason. Those suckers are delicious! And oh so easy. In fact, those two recipes are probably even my most used recipes on the blog.

Well, friends, I’ve come up with another one! I was really interested in making a lower calorie/lighter version of my standard cakes. Thanks to inherent portion control, both the peanut butter cake and Nutella cake are pretty low-calorie already—clocking in at between 200-250 calories a pop, but I wanted something even better. I wanted something that could fit into even the strictest of calorie budgets. I wanted something that would give you a nice dose of decadence without wrecking a whole day of hard work. And thus, the 130 calorie chocolate peanut butter microwave cake was born.

To get that calorie mark, I had to use some speciality ingredients. What is so loveable about the other two microwave cakes is that pretty much everything you need is on hand, not the case with this one. The calorie count is lowered dramatically thanks to the use of powdered peanut butter. If you’ve never had powdered peanut butter before, basically it’s dehydrated peanut butter. The vast majority of the fat and calories are taken away, leaving the delicious peanut butter-y flavor and a hefty dose of protein. A regular serving of peanut butter (two tablespoons) clocks in at 180 calories. Two tablespoons of powdered peanut butter? 45 calories. Boo-yah. Just mix it with a little bit of water and you’ve got yourself low-cal peanut butter. Yum! It’s a great alternative for those peanut butter-a-holics out there.  I really like PB2 brand, but there are others available as well. Trader Joe’s used to carry an amazing and cheap version, but they discontinued it last summer. Lame. But if you can find powdered peanut butter in store or online, it’s definitely worth trying out. We almost always have a jar of it in our pantry.

The second slightly-odd ingredient this recipe uses is liquid egg whites. You can buy these at pretty much any grocery store, but they can be a little hard to find. Look near the egg substitutes and you should see a small carton. These are great because they are a great way to get in the protein and low-calorie aspects of egg whites, without having to separate eggs or wasting the yolks. We almost always have a carton of this in our fridge. They are a great way to boost the protein of any egg dish, without adding many calories.

Again, just like I did with the other cakes, here is a disclaimer about undercooked eggs: if eating raw eggs skeeves you out, cook the cake for longer. I like my cakes a little gooey and that’s what the time suggestion below results in. And I’m willing to test my luck to eat a yummy, gooey, decadent cake. To completely nix your chances of salmonella or food poisoning, cook until the cake is dry and spongey.  Alright, enough of that, let’s cake it up.

 

Have you ever had powdered peanut butter before? What’d you think?