Yesterday was my birthday. I won't tell you how old I am, but all I will say is I am closer to 40 then I am to 20! With that being said, I feel like this year, so far, has been a bunch of non-stop trips away from home for our family. Now I am not complaining about this, but I have a big problem with controlling my food intake while not at home! Our next getaway is scheduled 3 weeks from now and I am determined to shed the baby weight before that trip, so I have resorted to something I have never done....follow a diet plan! Without going into too much detail (and maybe I will at a later date if I have success with this diet) I am trying one of those crazy 'low carb' diets.
And now back to my birthday and the whole reason for this blog --every year for my birthday I have the same thing. A chocolate box cake with a chocolate can of icing. My husband tried for many years to go all out and make me some sort of fancy cake, but I kept telling him that all I wanted was "a box cake and can of frosting".
Since I am trying to stay low carb'd (under 40 grams a day) I told him to go crazy with making me a "low carb" cake and this is what we came up with. He made the base and I made the topping (because I wanted more chocolate....it's my birthday after all!) This cake to some people would not be the lowest carb cake out there, but you know what...it's good! 
The nutty pecans give a great flavor to the cake part and the semi-sweet dark chocolate mousse topping add extra decadence without going over on the sweetness. I find with many Splenda desserts I can only taste the Splenda and adding the mousse topping really balanced out the sweetness to feel like you are eating a full fattening cake! I hope you enjoy as much as we did!
For the cake base you will need:
2 cups pecans
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup splenda
4 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup water
For the mousse topping you will need:
3.5 oz 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1.5 oz butter
1 teaspoon of salt
2 eggs
To Begin,
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and butter a 8-inch spring form pan.
2. Process pecans in food processor until they are a powdery consistency without turning into pecan butter.
3. Add cocoa, baking powder, salt, and splenda to the processed pecans. Stir until well combined.
4. Add the eggs, melted butter, vanilla, and water to the dry ingredients and stir well.
5. Pour into buttered spring form pan and bake for 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Let cake base cool.
Once your cake has cooled, begin the process for the mousse.
1. In the microwave or double boiler, melt the chocolate with the butter.
2. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Add the yolks to the chocolate mix and
combine well. Put whites in a cool glass mixing bowl.
3. Add a pinch of salt to the whites and beat them with a mixer until the whites are form soft peaks. (They almost will look like whipping cream.)
4. Fold them in the chocolate mix and then pour mousse mixture over the top of the cake.
5. Store the cake in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours until the mousse is set.
6. Slice and serve with a dollop of whipping cream or some sliced strawberries.
The Skinny: 16 pieces (you don't need huge ones for this cake) at 238 calories each
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