Copycat ding dongs or ring dings, made healthier than the commercial treat of round, cream-filled chocolate hand cakes. My healthier version is a homemade chocolate cake, filled with a nutritious coconut cream, and dipped in a healthy dark chocolate. Vegan, gluten-free!
Healthy Ding Dongs (or Ring Dings)
A delicious chocolate-coated, cream-filled hand cake sounds like something you'd have to buy. And a decade or so you could, but it would be a cake filled with hard-to-pronounce, processed ingredients.
Why buy when it's so easy to make these cakes at home. They are actually easy to put together. You need a sturdy cake recipe, a round cookie cutter, whipped cream, and some melted chocolate. I'll explain more.
Table of Contents For this Post
What Are Ding Dongs?
Ding Dongs were a commercial cake that looked like a hockey puck produced by a U.S. commercial bakery named Hostess. They launched the cake in 1967 and it was popular for decades until the bakery went out of business in 2012. [source]
A similar but less well-known version of the cake was sold by Drake's bakery until the company was bought by the Hostess's parent company.
The cake that looks like a Ding Dong, is now called a Ring Ding, and is still sold today.
But. As I noted, it's so easy to make a healthier homemade version.
Before we dive into the recipe, I'd like to invite you to sign up for my free chocolate course. Five lessons hit your inbox with detail on how to create your own simple healthy chocolate desserts.
Okay, so back to this recipe...
Ingredients in Ding Dongs
For the cake, I used: Flour, cocoa powder, sugar, coffee, leaveners, and pumpkin puree instead of eggs and oil. The recipe is basically my favorite vegan chocolate cake recipe made for an 8-inch square cake pan.
For the cream filling, I used: a can of full fat coconut cream, maple syrup, vanilla and cream of tartar.
How to Make Homemade Ding Dongs
It is so easy to make these. I used my favorite dairy free chocolate cake (recipe in card at the bottom of this post) but you can use your own favorite chocolate cake recipe.
Basically, I baked a square layer cake, and cut out 3-inch circles. Then, I used a frosting bag to pipe cream into each cake. And dipped the whole thing in melted chocolate. If you have left over cake crumbs, use them in my fool-proof swiss cake roll recipe.
A detailed recipe of the whole process is below, but since the coconut whipped cream might be the least familiar step in the process, I'll detail it a bit more below.
How Do You Make Coconut Whipped Cream?
I'll give you a quick tutorial here since the cream inside these is so important.
STEP 1: Buy a can of full fat coconut milk. Refrigerate it overnight so the solid firmly separates from the liquid. I usually buy Whole Foods 365 brand but Trader Joe's works too. The problem is the whipping reaction can vary between brands and even within brands.
STEP 2: Next day, open the can, reserve the liquid in a covered container in the refrigerator for smoothies. And put the solid cream portion into a mixing bowl. Add a few tsp of maple syrup or organic icing sugar if you want to keep it snowy white, some vanilla.
STEP 3: Whip it up into a peaky delicious cream. It takes about 4-5 minutes to really stiffen. Be sure to add ½ tsp of cream of tartar to help it take shape.
The resulting cream isn't exactly like traditional dairy whip in texture, but it is so close. And of course the nutrition in coconut whipped cream is high, full of nutrition that supports weight-loss and keeps cholesterol levels healthy. Of course you can just decide to fill your ding dongs with your favorite whipped cream or vanilla frosting.
How Does Coconut Cream Taste?
Coconut Whipped Cream tastes light and sweet, just a bit heavier than the cream that is pumped out of commercial cans. However, there is a bit of a coconut flavor, so to reduce that I recommend using a cane of light coconut milk. There is a bit of a coconut flavor however, and so if you want more of a vanilla flavor, pay attention to your vanilla.
Can I Make Ding Dongs in A Cupcake Pan?
Yes! A kind blog reader had that idea and asked me how long to cook them, so I thought I'd share how here.
You won't achieve the familiar hockey-puck shape of course. To make the ding dongs in a cupcake pan, just spoon batter into a 12-well cupcake pan with paper liners. Bake the cupcakes at 350 F for 16-18 minutes.
Allow them to cool completely, maybe an hour or overnight. Then make the cream and fill by using a fine frosting tip, pushing into the side and forcing cream inside the cupcakes. The cupcakes shouldn't be at all warm inside however or the cream will melt into a water and soak into the cake.
Other Healthier Dessert Recipes You Might Like
- Healthy Chocolate Cupcakes
- Homemade Milano Cookies
- 2-Ingredient Cut Out Cookies
- Vegan Royal Icing
- Rocky Road Fudge
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
- Chocolate Protein Balls
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Healthy Ding Dongs (or Ring Dings)
Ingredients
For the Square Cake:
wet ingredients
- 1 cup dairy free milk
- 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar or ACV
- ½ cup pumpkin puree or apple sauce or sweet potato puree
- 2 tsp vanilla
dry ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour or GF baking flour
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup organic cane sugar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp instant coffee granules or brewed coffee Add brewed coffee to liquids
Whipped Coconut Cream Filling
- 1 13.6oz/403ml coconut milk (full fat) solid portion only. Use light coconut milk to reduce coconut flavor of cream
- ½ cup organic powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp cream of tarter
- pinch of salt
Chocolate Coating
- 2 cups dark chocolate chips I use Enjoylife mini chips
- 2 tbsp coconut oil
Useful Equipment
Instructions
Prep
- Put coconut milk can to chill overnight so the solid portion will separate from the liquid. You want to use the solid portion for the whipped cream.
- Ready to bake? Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Grease an 8-inch square pan with vegan butter, and dust with cacao powder or line both ways with parchment paper
- In a large mixing bowl, combine milk and lemon juice and set aside for 10 minutes.
Make Cake
- In the large bowl, add to the milk/lemon mixture you prepared during prep all the other wet ingredients. Stir.
- Then dump in all the dry ingredient. Mix into a batter, but not long, you don't want a rubbery cake and over-mixing all purpose flour mixtures will do that.
- Pour batter into the pan, tap to even the surface, and bake 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- To flatten the center dome and make it easier to cut hockey pucks, press gently on the hot cake with a spatula all around the surface.
- Let cool in the pan for 30 minutes, run knife around inside edge, place a rectangular cook rack on top of cake, and tip pan upside down and allow cake to come out of pan and sit on rack.
- Place cake on rack in refrigerator for about an hour to allow it to cool and harden a bit before attempting to cut the cake circles.
- Cut 8-10 circles using a 2-inch circle cookie cutter.
- The left over cake cuttings can be crumbled on to a cookie sheet, toasted for 10 minutes at 350F. Don't burn them! Then use the crumbles as dessert sprinkles on ice cream or smoothie bowls.
Make the Cream
- To make the coconut cream, open the chilled coconut milk can, and scoop out the solid coconut - there will be ⅔ cup of liquid left behind, save that refrigerated for future smoothies.
- In the medium bowl, blend this solid coconut with the powdered sugar and vanilla and cream of tarter with a hand-mixer until creamy. Set in refrigerator to chill for the time left that the cake has to chill.
Pipe in Cream Filling*
- When both cake and cream are chilled, insert cream into circles using this technique:Insert a baking tip into a plastic sandwich bag, cut off the bag corner, filled the bag with the cream, and pipe the cream gentle into the center top of each cake circle, or even into each side if you want a lot of cream in the center as we do!You can also use a frosting bag instead of a sandwich bag.
Make the Chocolate Coating
- Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in a shallow bowl in the microwave at 60 seconds. Stir until all is melted.
- Dip each cake in the chocolate coating bowl using two forks and use a spoon to add mixture all around the cake.
- Set each coated cake back on the cooling rack and set them in the freezer for a few minutes to set, or leave them at room temperature.Once set, they are ready to eat! Enjoy!
Storage
- Keep them in a sealed container and refrigerated for 2 days. Or freeze them for 3 months.
carol
Have not made these yet, but your nutritional value is written a little odd, can you explain? Calories: 94kcal is 94000 calories, lol
Dee Dine
The "calorie" we refer to in food is actually kilocalorie. One (1) kilocalorie is the same as one (1) Calorie (uppercase C). Read more by the USDA.
Nadia
I've never tried ring ding cakes before, but hey sound amazing! Especially your healthified version 😀 Chocolate, cake, cream...what's not to love!
Debbie
Nadia! They are so much work but I couldn't resist, it is so much fun to bite into chocolate cake and find secret cream! Dee xx
Klara
Haha Dee I mean as yours.
Debbie
hahaha! Klara!
Klara
Aww Dee These look so so delicious 🙏🏻😍 I will make these yummy treats soon. Hopefully they Look as Great as yourself? Hugs Klara
Debbie
Thank you lovely friend! I hope you do! Can't wait to see, love Dee xx
Barbara
I love this recipe. Looks fairly simple. I was thinking to bake the cake it in a large muffin pan to not have to worry about getting the circles cut out. How long do you think I should bake the cake muffins?
Dee Dine
That is an awesome idea! I would halve the recipe to make 12 cupcakes, fill cupcake wells 2/3rds, and bake at 350 F for 16-18 minutes or until a tester comes clean and let cool completely before you fill them. Let me know how it goes. I love your variation.
Maria Koutsogiannis
Dee!!! These look incredible. I am going to make them! I think my boyfriend might fall in love!
Debbie
Awww, Maria! That would be awesome, I bet he will! haha! Take care hun, Dee xx
LN
Wow the cake part is already dense and so good, not sure I'll add filling and dipping sauce. Tanks for the recipe!
Debbie
Thank you for stopping by! So happy you love the cake! Dee xx.
Ela
Wow, wow, wow! Dee, they look so incredible. I would love to try them so badly right now. Amazing recipe too 🙂
Debbie
Such a sweetie, Ela! Love your reaction! I will come by tomorrow and visit you; late night here, lots of insta-drama, haha! Hope you are well, Dee xx.
Anna
They look so good Dee, I really want to lick my screen right now!!!
We don't have Ring Things over here, but I'm pinning this for sure, so hopefully I get to try them!!!
Awesome! Xxx
Debbie
Anna, you are such a sweetie. These are fun to make even if you don't have the unhealthy processed cakes in stores over there. Thanks for visiting! Will be popping by your blog today too! Dee xx.
Alex
Hi Debbie these look amazing! I'm confused as to how you pipe in the cream filling - do you make a hole in the middle? Did I miss something?
Debbie
Hi Alex,
To push the cream into the cake, I make sure the cake circle is completely cooled, then I inserted a frosting tip (you can buy them in a grocery store in the cake decorating area or on Amazon, just search cake tip by wilton) into a plastic sandwich bag (or a formal frosting bag), cut off the bag corner, filled the bag with the cream, and pushed the tip gently into the center TOP of each cake circle. Then I squeezed the bag gently so the cream pushes into the center of the circle coming from the top. Is that more clear? We also pushed it in from the sides on some but that did seem to almost over fill them, still we had a lot of cream! haha! Hope that helps, thanks for visiting. Dee xx.
Alex
Yes thank you for explaining, I appreciate it. Can't wait to make them!
Debbie
You are welcome Alex! Dee xx.
Tara
My Grandma used to set these out for birthdays all the time, still does occasionally. 🙂 Will have to try and whip some of these up this year for her birthday! Looks so good! 🙂
Debbie
Tara! So lovely, those Grandma traditions. Fun to put a healthy spin on them. Thank you for stopping by and congrats on your new blog. Going to visit finally! Dee xx.
Nisha/ @rainbowplantlife
Oh my goodness! This is a throwback to my childhood. I used to eat these all the time. I love your healthified version of this classic. So creative and I bet so delicious!
Debbie
Thank you Nisha, and they are still in stores so I was tired of the grocery store battles (haha!), decided we needed a healthy option. They are actually fun, I love hand-held desserts! Thank you sweetie for popping by, so nice of you! Dee xx.
Celeste
Can't wait to make these!!! Thank you for sharing. Will keep you posted 💫
Debbie
Thank you so much! I can't wait to see what you make. Take care! Dee xx