A Chocolate Cake You Can Be Proud Of

Usually, I don't use the word "diet," and I most definitely don't use it in the same sentence with the word "dessert" or, even worse, "cake." I love cake, and I don't believe in mutilating a perfectly delicious food by making it low-cal or low-fat; it always turns out dry or gummy or plastic-y or flavorless or tasting vaguely like cardboard dust. I'd rather eat small amounts of indulgent recipes or to cut them out altogether in favor of fruit or yogurt, or whatever it is dieters eat.

But last week, a friend of mine who happens to be dieting for a special event was also having a birthday. I wanted to make her something that would be festive without being too over-the-top bad-for-you (which is usually my forte). So, of course, I hit Google, and after a short search, I discovered a low-fat cake recipe on EatingWell.com called the "Died-and-Went-to-Heaven Chocolate Cake."

I felt comfortable trying this recipe because it doesn't include anything too bizarre (no apple sauce or Diet Coke or prune juice, thank goodness!) and it's very similar to one of my favorite recipes ever: Nigella Lawson's Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake (I make it for Charlie's birthday every year). Just like the DCLC, EatingWell's cake is dark, chocolaty, moist, and (to use one of Nigella's favorite words) squidgy.

I also knew that this cake wouldn't be too dry (which is my number one complaint against most good-for-you recipes). Unlike most cakes, this one doesn't depend on vegetable oil for its moisture; instead, it stays succulent because of hearty doses of low-fat buttermilk and strong black coffee. As you can see, it makes a very runny, slightly frothy batter.


I doubled the recipe so I could have a couple of smaller cakes for my family to snack on. I made my friend's big cake in the bundt pan as the recipe suggests, but I used a couple of 9-inch round pans for the smaller cakes. I ended up liking the plain little round cakes better; they looked chic and demure, somehow, and it was very easy to tell when they were done baking. The bundt, however, was a little more challenging to judge because of its size; I could never get my toothpicks to come out completely clean, even after the cake shrunk away from the inside of the pan.


Besides the pan size, there's nothing I wanted to change about this recipe (which, by the way, was terrifically easy). I used vegetable oil instead of canola oil because it's what I had on hand, but I don't think it made a difference in the flavor. Be sure that the coffee you use is very strong; I couldn't taste the coffee flavor at all in my cake, but a stronger brew gives the chocolate a little more darkness and bite. Admittedly, the frosting is just a plain old sugar and milk recipe like the one I use to frost sugar cookies (only a little runnier), but its sweetness makes a wonderful contrast to the cake's mellow chocolate flavor.

I would highly recommend this recipe to someone who's watching his or her weight (it's only 220 calories per serving!), and it's great if you just want something chocolaty around the house that you can eat with a little less guilt. Also, this is a good dessert to trick an unwilling dieter with: if I hadn't told my friend and my family this was health food, I don't think they would have been able to tell!

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EatingWell.com's Died-and-Went-to-Heaven Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose white flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot strong black coffee

Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1-2 tablespoons buttermilk, or low-fat milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil a 12-cup Bundt pan or coat it with nonstick cooking spray. Dust the pan with flour, invert and shake out the excess.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, white sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla; beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Whisk in hot coffee until completely incorporated. (The batter will be quite thin.)
3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes; remove from the pan and let cool completely.
4. To make icing: In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, vanilla and enough of the buttermilk or milk to make a thick but pourable icing. Set the cake on a serving plate and drizzle the icing over the top.