Devils Food with a little less sin.

I never knew just how much I loved Chocolate cake until recently when I began experimenting with devil’s food cake.  I have been playing with different cake recipes and I have enjoyed every bite of it.  I have yet to be disappointed with these heavenly desserts.  What’s ever better is that I have been working on making them a little less sinful- swapping applesauce for oil, reduced fat sour cream for original, that sort of thing, with wondrous results. 

There are two recipes that are fairly similar, the biggest differences being the sour cream and oil ratios as well as the size of dry pudding mix used.  I have baked them both within the last few weeks and found that I couldn’t really see the difference.  This cake was perhaps the moister of the two however, so I am posting it first. 

The original recipes that I found using Devils Food cake mix called for either boiling water, strong brewed coffee or coffee liquor.  With this cake I went with Irish Cream Liquor.  Why?  Well mainly because I bought a bottle at Christmas for my friends and family to partake in Irish Cream Coffee and then never got around to actually making the hot dessert beverage.  Maybe next year.  But alas, a whole bottle of Irish Cream, I thought it couldn’t hurt.  It didn’t.

When making this cake I did use a lot of reduced fat or less fat options, however those were to suite my preferences.  I have also made this cake using the ingredients in parenthesis with just as amazing results only with a little more fat.

Heavenly Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

1 package Devils Food cake mix

1 (5.9 oz) package Instant Chocolate pudding mix

1 cup reduced fat sour cream

1 cup applesauce (or oil)

1 cup eggbeaters (or 4 large eggs)

1/2 cup Irish cream liquor

2 cups (1 package) mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350* degrees.  Spray a 10 inch Bundt pan with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl (or using your electric stand mixer bowl) mix cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, applesauce, eggs and liquor with an electric mixer for 30 seconds.  Mix on medium speed for two minutes.
3. Stir in chocolate chips and pour cake mix into prepared pan.  Bake for 60 minutes.
4. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove cake from pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

When it comes to baking chocolate chips, nuts and zucchini are three of the things I love to see on a list of ingredients. My favorite quick bread is zucchini and my favorite cookies are chocolate chip and I will take both with nuts, especially walnuts or pecans. This muffin incorporates all three as well and is a wonderful afternoon snack or morning pick me up.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1/4 cup applesauce

1/4 cup canola oil

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup shredded zucchini

1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tins with cooking spray.
2. Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt). Combine egg, oil, applesauce, buttermilk and vanilla. Combine with flour mixture and fold in zucchini, chips and nuts.
3. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. I like to use a cookie scoop, about two good size scoops fills the tins 2/3 full.
4. Bake for 18-20 minutes in preheated oven. These freeze well.

Cinnamon Sugar Muffins

For years I have eaten Cinnamon Toast for breakfast and besides a Powdered Donut I’m not sure there is anything quicker to put together for breakfast. Before my last pregnancy I was eating four slices of Cinnamon Toast every morning for breakfast. I just love it.

Now I am trying to be a little healthier, I now enjoy one Cinnamon English Muffin on occasion. However, this week it’s all about muffins so I thought what the heck, why not attempt a muffin that channels one of my favorite things to have for breakfast?

I did in fact find several recipes, surprisingly enough, for cinnamon toast muffins. I combined two of them, making a few changes to make them a little more flavorful and hopefully a tad bit healthier. I think the result was rather successful and they were a big-BIG-hit with my taste testers, my two year old twins.

But then again, who can resist anything dipped in butter and rolled around in cinnamon and sugar?

Cinnamon sugar muffins

Ingredients:

(for muffins)

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup buttermilk (fat free)

1/3 cup applesauce

1 egg

2/3 cup white sugar

1 tbsp maple syrup

(for topping)

1/2 cup butter, melted

3/4 cup white sugar

4 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin pan or line with paper liners.
2. In medium bowl, sift together flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg; set aside. In a separate bowl combine buttermilk, applesauce, egg, sugar and maple syrup. Add dry mixture until combined being careful not to overmix.
3. Fill muffin tins 2/3 full and bake for 18-20 minutes. While muffins are baking melt butter in microwave or on stovetop over medium-low heat. Set aside to cool in a dish suitable for dipping muffin tops in. Mix cinnamon and sugar.
4. When muffins are done immediately remove from muffin pan and dip in melted butter. Roll muffin tops in cinnamon sugar topping and enjoy!

I enjoyed them so much that I dipped half eaten ones in the leftover cinnamon sugar. I might have a problem.

Sock It to Me Cake

You may have heard of a Sock It to Me Cake, until this week I had not. Turns out it's a pretty popular cake. I was looking for a pecan cake to make in my bundt pan and this is what I kept finding. So alas, I decided to use my only yellow cake mix in the pantry, make a few alterations to the recipe and give it a try.

The toasting and chopping of the pecans were the worst thing about this cake. I personally hate toasting nuts. All too often I burn my nuts and have to start over and nuts are not cheap. So if I'm not burning my nuts I am under-cooking my nuts where the whole process is probably pointless. And I hate chopping nuts. I buy my nuts in bulk at Sam's because I like to save money, but chopping nuts causes a little anxiety attack to begin because my OCD mind gets frustrated with the vast difference in my nut pieces. But I made this cake even with the toasting and the chopping. The cake was good but I think in the future I would chop my pecans even smaller and maybe skip the whole toasting process altogether.

Sock It To Me Cake

Ingredients

1 package yellow cake mix

1 cup light sour cream

1/2 cup applesauce

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1/2 cup eggbeaters

1 cup toasted and chopped pecans

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2.) Grease bundt pan. Toast pecans for 8 minutes at 350 degrees. Chop pecans.

3.) Blend cake mix, sour cream, applesauce, sugar, water, eggs, and eggbeaters. Beat on high 2 minutes. Pour 2/3 batter into greased bundt pan.

4.) Combine pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Sprinkle oven batter. Spread remaining batter evenly over sugar mixture.

5.) Bake 45-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 25 minutes.

6.) Mix confectioners sugar and milk. Remove cake from bundt pan and drizzle with glaze.

Good For You Banana Oatmeal Cookies

I realize that I have sort of gone off tangent, I mean originally this blog was to be all things cookie but I realized too late and yet all too quickly after undergoing this project that I just like more things than cookies. For example, this week I had gotten it in my head to do all things muffins but then I went and caught a bug someplace and have been like a zombie for half the week. I am on my way to recovering but alas this week is half way over so maybe next week.

But I did manage to make these cookies. I started with a recipe out of the Taste of Home Cookbook and decided to add a few spices and make it a 'good for you' cookie. The result was 4 dozen cookies that adults and kids alike could enjoy without worrying about the waistline. Not too much anyways.

These cookies were definitely more of the cake-like variety than the chewy variety but if you're looking for flavorful and healthy dare I recommend you look no further.

Good For You Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup applesauce (I use Mott's unsweetened)

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup eggbeaters (or 2 large eggs)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 mashed bananas (the riper, the better)

2 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 350 *F. Grease cookie sheets with Baker's Joy or your choice of cooking spray.

2.) Cream applesauce, butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggbeaters and vanilla. In separate bowl combine flours, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Slowly add to creamed mixture. Stir in bananas, oats, chips, and walnuts.

3.) Bake on greased cookie sheets 10 minutes. Remove immediately to wire racks to cool.

Yields 4 dozen cookies approximately.

Zucchini Spice Cupcakes

Let me begin by reiterating that I absolutely love quick breads and that my all time favorite quick bread is zucchini. Over the last few years I have grown from having a disinterest in zucchini, to not minding zucchini, to downright loving zucchini, especially in quick breads. I have even been seeking out zucchini recipes and have started thinking about growing a garden this spring just to have my very own zucchini in the backyard.

So with that out there, let me just tell you, from one who truly sees herself as a friend of zucchini, that these cupcakes were just s0-s0. The taste wasn't bad, they were very much like a spice cake, but they weren't very moist and if anything they were dense feeling when a cupcake should never be dense feeling. There was a crown to them too, so I know they did some rising, it just wasn't what I expect from a cupcake.

The recipe came from the Martha Stewart but I will admit I made a few changes, maybe the changes made this cupcake sub par but I don't think so, the changes I made were the type of changes I often make (i.e. substituting a little whole wheat flour, adding a little extra cinnamon, canola instead of vegetable oil) with little or no difference in the finished product. And besides, the cupcakes weren't bad, they were just unlike cupcakes to me. Had they been named muffins and had no cream cheese frosting they would perhaps have been fine, but alas then they couldn't have gone into her cupcake book. So here we are.

Zucchini Spice Cupcakes

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon grated nutmeg )
¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup unsweetened applesuace
1 /2 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
¾ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 cups packed light-brown sugar
3 cups packed grated zucchini
1 cup walnuts toasted and coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flours, soda, powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. In separate bowl, combine applesauce, oil, eggs, vanilla and lemon zest until well blended. Stir in brown sugar until smooth followed by zucchini, then add flour mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in walnuts.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

I used store bought cream cheese frosting but I think that if I make these again I will definitely go homemade cream cheese frosting.