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Low Fat Chocolate Cake

Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time50 minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 408kcal

Equipment

  • 1 6-inch cake pan
  • 1 electric beater or stand mixer
  • 1 cake leveler
  • 1 pastry bag
  • 1 large round decorating tip
  • 1 angled spatula

Ingredients

  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • ⅓ cup cocoa powder
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tablespoon applesauce
  • 2 tablespoon canola oil
  • 2 tablespoon molasses
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Whipped Cream Frosting

  • 1½ cups heavy whipping cream
  • ½ cup powdered sugar
  • ¼ cup cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Bake the cake

  • Preheat the oven to 350 °F
  • Lightly spritz a 6-inch cake pan with nonstick spray. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of flour into the pan and shake it around until the inside of the pan is completely coated in flour. Dump out any extra flour, and tap the pan a few times to make sure all the extra flour comes out.
  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, salt, and instant coffee
  • In another bowl, whisk together the water, applesauce, canola oil, molasses and vanilla extract.
  • Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the flour mixture. Use a spatula to stir the wet and dry ingredients together until completely combined.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan, and use the spatula to smooth the batter around so it's evenly distributed.
  • Put the cake in the oven to bake for about 50 minutes -- and watch it closely; it can get dry if it burns.
  • The cake is done when a knife or skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
  • Place the cake, in its cake pan, onto a cooling rack for about 15 minutes.
  • After 15 minutes, the cake should be cool enough to remove from the pan. Run a dull knife (like a butter knife) around the edge of the pan to make sure the edges of the cake aren't stuck to the pan. Flip the pan upside down and gently slide the cake out. If you prepared the pan properly with the non-stick spray and flour, the cake should pop right out.
  • Set the cake back on the cooling rack to cool for another hour before you try to frost it (frosting melts off of hot cakes.)

Make the frosting

  • In the bowl of a stand-mixer (an electric beater will work fine too), combine the heavy cream, powdered sugar, powdered cocoa and vanilla extract. Beat the frosting ingredients until they whip up into a thick, heavy whipped cream.

Put the cake together

  • To make a layer cake, you'll want to cut the cake in half somehow. It's also fine to eat the cake as one big layer, but I cut the cake into two layers using a cake leveler.
  • I also used the cake leveler to level off the slightly-domed top of the cake. I broke these cake scraps up into "dirt" for the construction site.
  • I used a pastry piping back with a big round tip to pipe a barrier around the edge of the bottom layer of cake, and then I filled the barrier with some more of the chocolate cream.
  • After I'd assembled the 2 layers, I spread a thin "crumb" layer of frosting all over the cake to catch the crumbs, and then I put the whole cake in the fridge for an hour until the crumb layer was firm.
  • Then, I used a spatula to frost the sides of the cake.
  • Finally, I put a big dollop of whipped cream on top of the cake and spread it around with my spatula. Because this cake was supposed to be a construction site, I didn't need to worry about the frosting looking "tidy" or "neat," it was fine that I had a few rough patches.
  • When decorating a cake, it always helps to remember what Bob Ross says: "There are no mistakes, just happy accidents."
  • I used Raisinets and Whoppers as rocks, and Kit-Kats for "lumber." The trucks themselves are a nice set of Matchbox construction vehicles I found in Wal-Mart.