Less Guilt Chocolate Lava Cakes

Hi Hi!!  Work has finally slowed down (for now) so I figured I'd reward you all for sticking with me with a delicious guilt-free (well, there may be some guilt) lava cake.  Easy to make so go ahead, you can be biting into this gooey deliciousness in less than a half hour!

From The Best of Clean Eating.

cooking spray
1/4 cup plus 1tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup sucanat
3 tbsp unsweetened applesauce
3 tbsp olive oil
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp vanilla
powdered sugar, to top (optional)

Heat oven to 400.  Spray 4 ramekins with cooking spray.  In a medium bowl, combine cocoa and sucanat.  Whisk in applesauce and oil.

In a small bowl, whisk egg and egg white.  Add to cocoa mixture.  Whisk until smooth.  Stir in flour and vanilla until just completely combined.  No over mixing.

Pour into ramekins and place on a baking sheet.  Bake for 9 minutes.  They will come out looking underdone.  They are not!  Let stand a few minutes before inverting on dessert plates.  Serve warm for the most warm yumminess.

Most Popular

Just checking out the blog stats today and figured it was a good day for a re-post.  A re-post of my most popular post to date.

Southern Hummingbird Cake - ah yes, this was a yummy one.

Almond Cake with Orange Glaze & Spiked Cream

Perhaps I should change my blog name to Chez Betty's Extremely Totally Fabulous Super Fancy Cooking?  Another Bon Appetit recipe here.
Ok, so I'm kidding about the fancy part.  Just glad that I finally picked up a copy of Bon Appetit and started cooking from it.  We haven't had any fails yet, and the recipes are not as involved as I thought.  Although I've heard that they have toned it down in recent years.

As the dessert to follow the yummy blood orange scallops previously posted, I made BA's almond cake.  Their recipe calls for a 8 inch, two layer cake with boysenberry jam filling.  First, I couldn't find boysenberry jam anywhere.  Second, I'm trying to cut back on the icings and such (and I'm lazy), so I made a 9 inch, one layer cake.  The result was still fabulous!  Oh yeah, and I chose to spike the cream on my own - it was one of those days.

3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp almond paste
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
mandarin orange jam, to top
powdered sugar, to top

Whipped cream
1 cup whipping cream
1 tbsp raspberry jam
1 tbsp coconut rum

Heat oven to 350.  Butter 9 inch round cake pan, line bottom with parchment, butter parchment.

Blend sugar and almond paste in food processor until finely ground.  Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl.

In separate bowl, beat almond paste mixture, butter and vanilla until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated.  Fold in dry ingredients and transfer to pan.

Bake cake for 30 minutes without opening oven. Rotate pan and continue baking until top is golden and cake is firm, about 8-10 minutes more.  Cool in pan on cake rack for 10 minutes.  Invert cake and remove pan.  Let cool completely.

Once cool, spread a layer of mandarin orange jam over top.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Serve with whipped cream.

For cream, whip all ingredients until peaks form.

A little taste of sunshine for a dreary day!  And this tastes even better the next day when left out at room temperature.

Southern Banana Cake (a/k/a Hummingbird Cake)

As a self-proclaimed cake-a-holic, I am always looking out for lightened versions of any and all desserts I can find.  This Hummingbird Cake comes from Southern Living's website.  This is the "lightened" version as they put it.  I thought it tasted pretty damn good too (won't even look at the un-lightened recipe).  This is also only my third timing making icing which is not at all diet friendly in my opinion.  It worked though!!

The original recipe called for 3 cake pans for a 3 layer cake but I only own two (for now).  Also, I subbed out 1.5 cups of the all purpose flour with whole wheat and cut out 1/2 a cup of the sugar from the cake mix.

Vegetable cooking spray
1.5 cups plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour, divided
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 3/4 cups mashed banana (about 5 to 6)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, undrained

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 (8-ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese (unsoftened)
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon light butter (unsoftened)
6 cups powdered sugar (eeeekk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Coat 2 round cakepans with cooking spray; sprinkle flour evenly into pans, shaking to coat.

Combine remaining 3 cups flour and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Stir together eggs, applesauce, and oil; add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not beat.) Stir in mashed banana, vanilla extract, and pineapple. Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.

Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove layers from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

Beat cream cheese and butter at high speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed just until smooth. Stir in vanilla.  Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake.
 
Nutritional Information (approximate as I made some substitutions)
Calories:407 (21% from fat)
Fat:9.5g (sat 2.9g,mono 3.2g,poly 2.1g)
Protein:4.6g
Carbohydrate:78g
Fiber:1.7g
Cholesterol:33mg.

If you enlarge that last pic, you can just see how moist this cake is.  Gotta love that!