Healthy Ding Dongs (or Ring Dings)

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.

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. Or, use your favorite vanilla frosting.

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 circles. I have made these using 2-inch cookie cutters, and 3 inch cookie cutters. As you might guess, the 3-inch circles accept more cream.

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.

OR, if you don't want to deal with cutting circles, make cupcakes and fill them. The recipe would make 12 cupcakes. Fill cupcake wells ⅔rds, and bake at 350 F for 16-18 minutes or until a tester comes clean. Let cool completely before you fill them. Similarly, I have a recipe here for filled cupcakes as Hostess Cream Filled Cupcakes.

You can find this Ding Dong recipe in detail at the bottom of this post, 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. 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 powdered 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. However, if the texture is too watery it can be absorbed by the cake so add a bit more powdered sugar may help.

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)

Created by Dee Dine

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, and more nutritious, these little chocolate hand cakes are a dream come true!

5 from 10 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hr

Cook Time 2 hrs

Total Time 3 hrs

Cuisine vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free

Servings 10

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

• 3 nesting mixing bowls
• 1 set of cookie cutters
• electric hand mixer

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 circles using a circle cookie cutter. I have made these using 2-inch cookie cutters, and 3 inch cookie cutters. As you might guess, the 3-inch circles accept more cream.
• 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 Cupcakes Instead of Cutting Circles

• OR, if you don't want to deal with cutting circles, make cupcakes and fill them. The recipe would make 12 cupcakes. Fill cupcake wells ⅔rds, and bake at 350 F for 16-18 minutes or until a tester comes clean. Let cool completely before you fill them.

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.

Notes

*Of course you can just fill your cakes with your favorite whipped cream or vanilla frosting.

Nutrition

Calories: 94kcalCarbohydrates: 25gProtein: 2gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 349mgPotassium: 174mgFiber: 2gSugar: 21gVitamin A: 1999IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 59mgIron: 1mg

Keyword chocolate cake, devils food, ding dongs, handcakes, healthy cake, ring dings

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