It’s the holidays and I want to have fun.
But what if I told you we can still eat delicious foods and save some of those calories from added sugar? That would be good, don’t you think?
Well, the wonderful people over at SPLENDA®, asked me if I would be interested in creating a few recipes using their product. To be totally honest, I have been asked many times to create a recipe that uses less sugar, but it isn’t always easy. I have tried using natural substitutions (like concentrated fruit purees) to achieve a really good dish, but often times in baking, those changes don’t give you the same texture or level of sweetness that many of these dishes often need.
I picked up both SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated and SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend and got down to baking. SPLENDA® Granulated measures cup for cup with sugar and can be used almost anywhere sugar is used. And, SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend provides the browning, texture and moistness of regular brown sugar but with half the calories because you only need half as much!
If you’re looking to lighten up a few of your recipes this holiday season, give this fudgy cake a try. Hot out of the oven, it’s molten, cakey, tart and spicy – all in one dish!
*makes one 8 x 8″ cake or about 6 servings (1 cup or 8 oz)
Ingredients:
Cake:
1 c flour
1/2 c SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, granulated
2 tbsp cocoa
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
1/2 c milk
1/4 c butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
Handful frozen cranberries (about 1/2 cup)
2 squares dark chocolate with chili (optional…or you can just use a pinch of cayenne [gives it the most subtle kick])
Topping:
1/3 c SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend
2 tbsp cocoa
1/4 c coffee (you can use a shot of espresso or even rum/coffee liqueur)
3/4 c boiling water
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF and butter an 8 x 8 square baking dish.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, granulated, 2 tbsp cocoa baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, mix milk, melted butter and vanilla; stir well and add to the flour mixture.
4. Mix the batter until it comes together (it will be thicker than a cake batter – it should be more like a cookie batter); spread onto the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
5. If you’re using the chocolate, this is the kind I usually use (like I said before, if you don’t have it – or can’t find it – just use a pinch of cayenne); break the squares into pieces and sprinkle on top of the batter.
6. Scatter the cranberries over the batter (I love the tartness from the cranberries!)
It looks pretty but we aren’t done yet!
7. In a small bowl, mix the SPLENDA® Brown Sugar Blend with the remaining 2 tbsp cocoa; sprinkle over the cake base.
8. In a glass or mug, mix the coffee/liqueur/rum and boiling water; pour over the cake base and bake for 25 minutes or until the chocolate sauce is bubbling and the cake is firm (the cake should rise to the top and the chocolate sauce should be at the bottom).
9. Pull it out of the oven and serve immediately.
If you’re having company, make the plate pretty like this: lay a spoon and fork at the corner of your plate and sprinkle with cocoa powder, then carefully remove the utensils; put a small scoop of vanilla ice cream or non-fat whipped topping and then scoop some warm molten cake at the other corner.
Yup…it’s restaurant worthy!
For more information about SPLENDA®, please visit Splenda.ca.
This post was sponsored by the makers of SPLENDA®; thoughts and opinions are my own.
