With the holiday season upon us, it is always nice to make a few desserts. I love Chocolate cake but not all the calories and unhealthy ingredients. This recipe is just awesome as there are a few healthier ingredients and it is moist! I am not sure if you would find this recipe in a health magazine but it works for me! Instead of using vegetable oil – use unsweetened applesauce. A great substitute for whenever you are baking.
I selected a lighter icing, as we do not care for a heavy, sweet icing. Plus you can make the icing thinner to drizzle it over the cake or add less unsweetened Almond Milk to keep it thicker.
You can store the cake without any icing and then when you slice and plate it, drizzle some of the chocolate peanut butter icing over it. Plus this makes a wonderful cake to take to a party since you can add the icing afterwards – not so messy to travel.
I made this cake for my mother’s birthday and I did add the icing at home. I added four toothpicks to help keep the two layers together since the icing was a thinner consistency.
Can you see how moist this cake is?
The cake can be served as a layer cake or leave as two separate cakes.
If only I had a slice right now! Yummy! So sad it is all gone!
What is your favorite go to cake recipe?
Cake Ingredients
2 cups Flour, plus more for pans
2 cups Sugar
3/4 cups Cocoa Powder
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Kosher Salt
Wet Ingredients
1 cup Buttermilk, shaken and at room temperature
1 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
2 extra-large Eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla
Coffee Ingredients
1 cup Freshly Brewed Hot Coffee
Icing Ingredients
⅔ cup Natural Peanut Butter
4 tbsp. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 tsp. Vanilla
About ¾ cup of Unsweetened Almond Milk
Honey if you want a Sweeter Icing
Cake Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans with a non-stick spray. Line with parchment paper, then spray and flour the pans.
Sift the cake ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the cake ingredients and mix until just incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Be careful since I found after sifting the dry ingredients the resulting mixture was light and fluffy. My first attempt at adding the wet mixture was a bit messy with cake mixture flying out of the bowl!
Add the coffee and stir just to combine. Then pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool in the pans then remove to a cooling rack to fully cool. Placing in the refrigerator can also help when you ice the cake. You can make this icing as thin or as thick as you like it. Just add less of the unsweetened almond milk for a thicker consistency.
