Joy Bauer Just Shared Her Recipe for 2-Ingredient Chocolate Fudge Cakes—and They Pack an Anti-Inflammatory Punch

Lucy Schaeffer

You can never have enough easy recipes in your back pocket, especially if they use just a handful of pantry ingredients. Whether you're suddenly in the mood for a bowl of soup, a quick salad or a sweet treat, having the right ingredients on hand can make mealtime way more delicious. And since a hankering for something sweet doesn't always come at a convenient time, it can be nice to know you have a go-to dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Joy Bauer, the registered dietitian and resident nutrition expert for TODAY, just shared a super easy chocolate fudge cake recipe that's definitely entering our pantry dessert repertoire. The dietitian took to Instagram to share her #NoOvenNeeded recipe, a quick 2-ingredient treat that one commenter called the most "decadent yummy recipe" out there.

Related: This 4-Ingredient Anti-Inflammatory Dessert Recipe Tastes Just Like a Banana Split—Here's How to Make It

All you'll need for Bauer's recipe is a cup of canned pumpkin purée and 2 1/4 cups of melted chocolate chips. You can swap in whatever kind of chocolate chips you prefer, whether they're milk, dark, semisweet or even a no-added-sugar brand. Simply melt your chips, combine them with the pumpkin and divvy up the mixture into 10 lined wells of a muffin tin, smoothing out the tops as you go. (Though you might typically spritz a little cooking oil in your liners, Bauer says there's no need with this recipe.)

And there's an extra kicker for folks who'd rather have a no-cook recipe—instead of baking these cakes, you simply pop them into the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours, then serve them up. Since there's no need to fire up the oven for this recipe, you can keep the kitchen cool on a warm day. If you want to zhuzh them up a little more, just add some whipped cream, berries or shaved chocolate for a rich and decadent treat that barely takes 10 minutes to whip up. And according to Bauer and commenters, the pumpkin taste is pretty negligible, so you don't have to save this treat for the fall, either.

Related: 32 Anti-Inflammatory Dinners You'll Want to Make This Spring

And if the ease and simplicity of this recipe isn't enough to win you over, the health benefits of both ingredients might appeal to you. Research indicates that cocoa can be better for you than you might think. Cocoa contains flavanols, antioxidants that can help protect your heart health, possibly lowering your risk for heart attacks. Those antioxidants may also help tamp down chronic inflammation in the body by protecting your tissues. (Dark chocolate can be especially good for you, as it's richer in flavonoids and typically lower in added sugar.)

Chronic inflammation can be a real bother, adversely affecting your sleep, your digestion and even your blood pressure in certain cases. But there are plenty of foods you can add to your diet that have an anti-inflammatory effect—and that includes cocoa. Plus, pumpkin can help your body produce more vitamin A and contains lots of carotenoids to help with your eye health.

However you top your mini cakes, you'll be relieved to have this recipe top of mind when your sweet tooth strikes—especially on a toasty day.