Sarah's Reduced-Fat Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate Fudge Reduced-Fat Frosting

By Hklbrries

Delicious and lovely topped with the frosting (included here), or with a coconut pecan frosting such as you'd find on German Chocolate Cake. I love being able to enjoy all the goodness of rich chocolate without as huge a toll on my caloric intake! This is in part thanks to the use of part cocoa instead of all chocolate. Don't be alarmed by the length of the instructions.

Sarah Phillips

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (2 squares)
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 4 tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sour cream or buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder or natural cocoa powder
• 1 cup hot, strong coffee (or 2 tsp instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 cup hot water)
• 1 tsp baking soda (added last)
• Frosting:
• 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate (1 square)
• 1 tsp instant espresso coffee powder
• 2 tbsp boiling water
• 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tbsp Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tbsp 1% lowfat milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Details

Servings 12
Adapted from baking911.com

Preparation

Step 1

Cake: Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 F. Grease and optionally dust with cocoa powder (best used with "flouring" chocolate cake pans), two (8-inch) round nonstick cake pans. The batter is very soupy and will stick to the pans unless properly prepared.

Melt the chocolate squares. Let cool until tepid.

In a medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until it resembles coarse bread crumbs, and scraping down the sides of the bowl often, about 2 minutes. Beat in melted chocolate. Add the buttermilk, eggs, egg whites and beat until smooth.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa until well combined. (If the cocoa is lumpy, sift it, after measuring, onto a piece of waxed paper). With a large mixing spoon, add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, scraping down the bowl often. Mix until smooth. With a cup held over the mixing bowl, dissolve the baking soda in a cup of hot coffee. The mixture will bubble up and may spill. Add to the batter and mix until smooth. The batter will be very thin. Divide it equally between prepared pans.

Bake until the cakes begin to pull away from the sides of the pans, about 30 minutes. Do not overbake. Do not open the oven until the last 5 minutes of baking. Cool in the pans on wire cake rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto racks. Turn right side up and cool completely.

Place one cake, flat-side up, on a serving platter. Spread with 1/3 of the Fudge Frosting. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remainder and serve.

Fudge Frosting: Melt the chocolate squares. Let cool until tepid. Beat together ingredients. If this is too runny or dry, add confectioners' sugar or milk to correct. Best used when applied to the cake at room temperature.