So, what is Stevia - and how do I use it?

When it first became available it was known to be very sweet, way sweeter than even sugar. Now Hermesetas has a product called SteviaSweet which you can use just like sugar because it is the equivalent of sugar spoon for spoon. This makes it so much easier to use.

Stevia is a plant-based sweetener with hardly any calories and no carbohydrates. It can be used as sugar in everything, most importantly in coffee, tea and cake.

SteviaSweet is so easy to use and has a sugar-like texture that you can still stir it into your favourite beverage (coffee, coffee, coffee). And the best thing is that Stevia has no effect on your blood sugar – so you can eat it every single day. As a two-coffees-and-one-tea-per-day-person who also likes cake, I’m eternally grateful for that. I can’t, just can’t, drink coffee and tea without some kind of sweetener, even though I’ve tried many times.

My mother-in-law is diabetic and swears by it. She doesn’t have to miss out on using some sweetness and is forever grateful that Stevia has come her way. My sister who is a bit of a sugar-substitute expert told me all about it years ago.

Studies by the Dental Science Group at Purdue University have even shown that the sweetening components of Stevia are “fluoride-compatible” and actually inhibit the formation of new dental plague. Amazing. I also love the fact that Stevia is a plant extract. It’s a herb-like plant that originated in South America and all the sweetness is extracted from the leaves.

It’s been used in Japan for the past 30 years and now, finally, we get to use it too.

And so you can get started immediately, I am going to share with you my super secret and super healthy chocolate cake recipe using Stevia and other good, good things. This recipe produces a dense, chewy, chocolaty cake that resembles mud cake without having to use a million eggs and 5000 grams of butter.

JO’S SUPER SECRET AND SUPER HEALTHY CHOCOLATE CAKE:

INGREDIENTS:

1 ½ cups of wholemeal self-raising flour
One cup of Hermesetas SteviaSweet
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/ 3 cup vegetable oil, preferably olive oil
2 eggs
½ cup oatbran
½ cup cocoa
1 tbsp of chocolate essence
1 tbsp vanilla essence
½ cup pureed cooked apple, cooled
2 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cup milk, any kind
Fresh berries

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Grease and line a cake tin. Combine flour, baking powder, oat bran, cocoa and Hermesetas SteviaSweet in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl combine eggs, chocolate essence, vanilla essence, olive oil, apple puree, mashed bananas and milk and beat until combined. Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir with a fork until combined. Pour into cake tin and bake for 1 to 1 ½ hours or until firm to the touch.

Cool and serve with lots of fresh berries.

I like to freeze this cake and pack it in their school lunches or save it for an after school snack. You can even make it into cupcakes and muffins.

Enjoy.

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