Low-Fat Chocolate-Zucchini Cake

By Hklbrries

In the quest for reduced-fat cakes and brownies, cooks have used all sorts of ingredients to replace margarine and butter, including applesauce, dried fruit purees and baby food.

Here's another substitute you can add to your baking arsenal: fat-free mayonnaise.

That's the secret ingredient in this delicious, moist Chocolate-Zucchini Cake. Fat-free mayonnaise tastes great and replaces 1/2 cup of margarine called for in the original recipe.

Use fat-free mayonnaise as a substitute in other cake and bread recipes that contain strong flavors, such as chocolate, raspberry or maple, because the other flavors cover up the mayonnaise taste.

By substituting fat-free mayonnaise and liquid egg substitute, and reducing the amount of nuts, the new recipe shaved off more than 8 g of fat and 63 calories per serving from the original version.

For a less moist cake, you may use two regular eggs instead of the egg substitute.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup fat-free mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup fat-free liquid egg substitute (or 2 whole eggs)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 5 tbsp cocoa
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup sour skim milk (or 3/4 cup skim milk mixed with 1/2 tsp lemon juice)
• 2 cups shredded fresh zucchini (1 large or 2 small zucchini)
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp finely chopped pecans

Details

Servings 16

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 325 F. Thoroughly coat a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking pan with cooking spray. Dust with about 1 tbsp flour. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the fat-free mayonnaise and the canola oil. Add the sugar and beat until the sugar dissolves. Add the vanilla, egg substitute, salt, cinnamon and cocoa.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the mayonnaise mixture alternately with the sour skim milk. Beat just enough to combine ingredients, but do not overbeat. Stir in the zucchini by hand.

Spread the batter in the prepared pan and sprinkle top evenly with the chocolate chips and pecans. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a pick inserted in the center comes out clean.