Chocolate Valentine's Cake
You can have your cake and eat it too with this flavorful, moist, low-fat chocolate cake.
Its secret? Plum puree baby food, which takes the place of a traditional fat, such as oil.
I like the cake served slightly warm and sprinkled with cocoa and instant espresso powder. They take the place of frosting-another way to cut calories.
Sprinkle a few fresh raspberries over the top just before serving and you have a quick Valentine’s Day dessert. Be sure not to overmix the cake or it will come out tough; blend the dry ingredients with the liquids just until they are moistened. And you don’t have to drag out your mixer for this cake, which is a holiday treat for the cook as well.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch round cake pan with butter and line it with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir until the ingredients are blended.
Combine the baby food puree, vanilla, egg substitute and milk. Stir it into the dry ingredients until they’re almost blended.
Combine the espresso powder and boiling water and stir the liquid into the batter just until the ingredients are blended.
Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan 10 minutes.
Invert it onto a wire rack to cool a little more, then place the warm cake on a serving plate. Sprinkle the top of the cake with some cocoa powder and instant coffee. Cut the cake into slices and serve each piece with a few raspberries.
Get our Cooking newsletter.
Your roundup of inspiring recipes and kitchen tricks.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
