First Recipes

Sorry the photos are blurry :-)



Below is my first recipe posting. These are two cakes that I made this weekend for a friend's birthday and going away party. I will post the original recipe and then what I did to adapt it to make it a bit healthier. That will be the protocol I will follow when I post all my recipes so here goes.

Best Ever Chocolate Cake

•4 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate
•1/2 cup butter (I use 1/2 cup applesauce)
•1 cup water
•2 cups flour
•2 cups sugar (I use half splenda/half sugar)
•pinch of salt
•1/2 cup buttermilk (I use light vanilla soy milk)
•1-1/4 tsp. baking soda
•2 eggs, beaten (I use egg beaters)
•1 tsp. vanilla
•1 cup sour cream (I use light sour cream)
•1 pkg (4 oz.) instant chocolate pudding mix
•1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a large saucepan, melt 4 squares chocolate and 1/2 cup butter in the hot water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add flour, sugar, pudding mix and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk or eggbeater.

Then stir in milk, baking soda, eggs sour cream and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl mix together everything except chocolate chips. Batter will be think. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour batter into two 9 inch round cake pans.

Bake 35 mins. Do the toothpick test if the cake is not done yet cook for 5 mins at a time until passing the toothpick check.

I used the same recipe for the cake on each where I differed was the frosting. I used buttercream on one and other I added peanut butter to the frosting.

Buttercream Frosting Recipe

1 cup shortening (Crisco)
4 cups powered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening until fluffy. Add sugar and continue creaming until well blended. Add salt, vanilla and whipping cream. Blend on low speed until moistened. Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

For the peanut butter version I just added 1/2 cup of peanut butter and continue to beat the frosting. Then I topped with chopped Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.

**I got this recipe from another blog and just adapted it with my healthy changes.**