I was in the mood for something sweet and chocolatey.  I know, I'll buy one of those super-easy-to-make cake mixes.  Except that I really try to limit my sugar.  And when it comes to cake mixes, the selection of sugar-free or no-sugar-added items is practically non-existent.  But lucky for me, Sweet 'N Low brand makes a few no-sugar-added cake mixes, so I bought the chocolate one.

When I say easy-to-make, I'm not kidding.  You add water to the powder, and mix it up.  That's it!  You end up with a thick, brown batter.  Toss the batter it into a greased pan and bake.  Nothing could be simpler.

This mix will make an 8" square cake, an 8" x 4" loaf, or 10 muffins.  I chose the square cake.  No matter how you shape it, it's still considered 5 servings.  Each serving contains 160 calories, 2.5g of fat, 1g of fiber, and 1g of sugar.  You'll note that this is not a sugar-free product, but 1g of sugar per serving is still pretty darn low.

So how does the final product look/smell/taste?

The cake is a much lighter color than I would have expected.  Much lighter than the picture shown on the box.  This cake has the color of mocha or lightened coffee, rather than a rich dark brown.  Of course, the picture on the box shows a cake that's been coated in a layer of icing, but that is merely a "serving suggestion".  No icing comes with this cake.  If you want icing, you're on your own!

The cake smells pretty good.  It has a definite chocolate aroma to it.

As for the taste...

It was "ok".  The chocolate flavor was pretty nice.  My only complaint is one that happens with a lot of no-sugar-added food items.  That is the texture.  Dry.  Very dry.  In fact, I ended up drizzling some sugar-free chocolate syrup over the top of the cake to help moisten it up.  And that helped a lot.  In fact, with the syrup over it, the cake actually makes a nice treat.  On its own, however, it's really too dry.

What makes it sweet?  Sorbitol is the second ingredient after flour.  And acesulfame potassium is the last ingredient.  The sorbitol provides 14g of sugar alcohol per serving, and can cause dietary distress, if you're not used to it.  Make sure you start out in small doses, until you're sure your system can handle it.  As for me, I divided this cake into 6 portions (instead of the suggested 5) and I had no trouble eating it.

Do note that despite the fact that the brand is Sweet 'N Low, they don't use their own sweeteining product in the mix.  Probably because saccharine is not the best product to use, when it comes to baking.

Sweet 'N Low makes a few no-sugar-added cake varieties besides the chocolate: white, lemon, gingerbread, and banana.  See sweetnlow.com for additional information.

Overall, this isn't the worst no-sugar-added dessert I've tried, but it's not the best either.  If you decide to give it a try, I suggest topping it, or adding some applesauce to the recipe to help moisten it.

Hershey's Sugar-Free Chocolate Syrup

Recommended: No