Green Velvet Greek Yogurt Cake Tops (& Homemade Ice Cream Sammies!)

It has recently come to my attention that I only know two ways to bake: decadent and indulgent. Those may seem like synonyms, but trust me, there’s a hair of difference. Decadent will make you physically ill if you eat the whole thing; indulgent will not. Or so I tell myself.

With that in mind, I challenged myself to make a less-decadent dessert. Something that my Crossfit and P90X-loving friends might even try a nibble of (maybe). And I wanted it to be something rich in flavor, like a lightened-up version of your favorite birthday cake that you could get away with eating at more than your annual upping-your-age celebration.

I settled on red velvet cake. Only this one became green velvet cake, because my alma mater’s colors are hardwired into my brain (Go Bulls!) and, more practically, because I went crazy making red velvet doughnuts — and red velvet everything — a year ago and still have several bottles of lonely, unloved green, yellow and blue food coloring, and I refuse to buy another package until I use at least some of them up. #stubborn

So, how could I healthy up a green velvet cake without ruining it? I consider most “healthy” desserts to be a total waste of calories: If it tastes like sawdust and sour cream, why bother eating it?! A dessert has to be at least 80 percent as good as the original to be worth trying. Don’t deny your tastebuds any less.

The substitutions were not without some trial and error (and okay, some error serious enough for its own blog post), but I finally found a version I really like.

Instead of a full-on cake, I recommend spreading a 1/2-inch layer of batter on a cookie sheet with sides, and letting it bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. The result is a springy, slightly crispy-topped snack that’s every bit as tasty as green velvet cake, yet it holds it own as its own category of dessert.

These cake tops include a few swaps:

• Less sugar
• Less butter
• Instead of eggs, a flax seed-and-water-combo
• Instead of buttermilk, one 5.3-ounce cup of Greek yogurt mixed with two ounces of water

Of course, I can’t resist unhealthy-ing them up: They’re pretty much amazing when you turn them into an ice cream sandwich. (Plus, since they’re spongier than cookies, you won’t have ice cream ooze out everywhere when you take a bite. It’s a double victory, inspired by Sprinkles Ice Cream shop’s cupcake sandwiches.) I suppose you could blend frozen bananas and use that in place of ice cream. I say “suppose” because while that sounds delicious, I couldn’t help but gobble up the cake tops with some Salted Caramel gelato. I guess decadent is every bit as hard-wired into me as my school pride. Then again, gelato was the only ice cream in my freezer, so maybe it’s a little column A, a little column L (as in lazy).

Anyway, here’s how to make these lightened up Greek Yogurt cake tops: