Despite having adopted a fair number of diets to help a range of purposes, from trimming for race day or even boosting my mental health, I’ve never been really been willing to completely curb my sweet tooth.

It’s a problem I know a lot of people share, so it’s a relief that recipes that are often thought of as decadent or indulgent can be adapted to be nutritious and protein-packed sources of energy.

Perhaps none more so than this protein molten lava chocolate cake.

I’ve seen similar recipes to this one published elsewhere online, listing it as a Valentine’s Day dessert and, while we’re a little late in the year for that, this one toes the line on the right side of indulgent-but-healthy to make it appropriate to have at any time of year.

While this recipe is gooey and rich like your normal run-of-the-mill lava cake, this version is much kinder in calories, is gluten-free and it packs in a nice punch of protein (10+ grams of the stuff!). It requires a couple of slightly more specific ingredients, but is more than worth the investment.

Plus, we’re using dark chocolate with this recipe and, unlike its fattier milk-based counterpart, dark chocolate has a ton of health benefits. From helping your cognitive function, to helping with pain relief, a little bit of the dark stuff goes a long way.

This recipe is almost suspiciously easy-to-make, taking barely 10 minutes from start to finish. I’ll let you be the judge of whether or not being able to prepare a chocolate dessert in such little time is either a blessing or a hazard…

It’s time for us to have our cake and eat it. Let’s get into it!