More Lightened Up Desserts

In honor of my friends Darren and Stacy, I thought I'd post a couple more desserts from my Lighten Up! 5-Ingredients Less Fat Recipes cookbook. After I posted the Mexican Chocolate Cake recipe, Darren decided to go home and bake it for Stacy. She was impressed. So, here are a couple more recipes that are equally as tasty. I haven't made them recently, but they are tried and true!

3 Ingredient Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
1 (16 oz.) can dark sweet cherries, drained, syrup reserved
5 egg whites
1 reduced fat chocolate cake mix

1. Puree cherries in food processor.
2. Mix pureed cherries and egg whites in a large bowl with electric mixer.
3. Add dry cake mix and 1/4c. reserved cherry juice.
4. Mix well, and pour into a sprayed 9" x 13" pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
12 servings; per serving: 225 calories, less than 4g of fat

Sissy's Variations: I like to make this cake in a bundt. I don't know what made me do that, but I really like that you get way more than the 12 servings and it's easy to transport.

Banana Pudding
When I first started using this cookbook, I made my husband (then my boyfriend) highlight all the recipes in it that he thought he would like. This one got highlighted and marked with "oh yes!" It did not disappoint. It's so good, that you don't even miss what's missing.
Ingredients:
1 large (6 servings) pkg. sugar free vanilla instant pudding
2 1/2 c. skim milk
1 (8 oz.) tub frozen light whipped topping, thawed
3/4 c. POST GRAPE-NUTS Brand Natural Wheat and Barley Cereal
4 bananas, sliced

1. Mix pudding mix and mild in a large bowl with a whisk.
2. Add thawed whipped topping.
3. Layer in a serving dish: half the cereal, half the banana slices, half the pudding.
4. Repeat layers.
5. This must be refrigerated 6 hours or up to overnight for the cereal to become soft.
8 servings; per serving: 200 calories, 4g fat

Sissy's Variations: I can't think of any variations that I've ever done myself except adding a few banana slices decoratively on top of the cereal. I've been meaning to try this with the lower calorie/lower fat/light 'Nilla Wafers used in classic Banana Pudding.

Mexican Chocolate Cake

Finally updating with a new recipe. Not really a new recipe to me, though. This Mexican Chocolate Cake is an old, easy standby that's not only super yummy, but also lower in calories and fat than most cakes (most desserts, in general). This makes it vastly different from the other recipes in my blog!

I made the cake for a Cinco de Mayo potluck lunch at the office and had one request for the recipe and multiple compliments on the cake, so what better way to start back on the blog?

The recipe is from my Lighten Up! 5-Ingredient Less Fat Recipes cookbook.

Ingredients (cake):

• 5 egg whites
• 2 1/2 c. unsweetened cinnamon applesauce
• 1 reduced fat chocolate cake mix
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
  

1. Beat egg whites with electric mixer until foamy.
2. Mix in applesauce.
3. Add dry cake mix, vanilla, and cinnamon.
4. Mix at medium speed for 1 minute.
5. Spread in sprayed and floured 9" x 13" pan.

Ingredients (topping:)

• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1. Mix topping ingredients and sprinkle on top.
2. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes.
12 servings; per serving: 220 calories, 3g fat

Sissy's Variations: I can never seem to find unsweetened cinnamon applesauce, so I just use plain unsweetened and add cinnamon until I think it looks right. Sorry, measurement! I also just spray the pan with cooking spray, but don't flour and have never had an issue with sticking.

White Coconut (Cup)Cake: Take 1

 

My mother-in-law's birthday was August 28, but we were not celebrating until the following Sunday. Since I'm on this big baking kick right now, I decided I was going to make her a cake. Bill's family doesn't do birthdays like my family does, but I'm trying to change that a little bit and baking  a cake seemed like the way to go. So, after asking the clueless Bill what kind of cake his mom liked, I texted my sister-in-law to find out.  I was shocked when she came back with white coconut. Why, you ask? Because white coconut happens to be my mother's favorite cake, and I was planning on making one for her birthday later in September. Only thing was, I'd never done a coconut cake. Now, I had the opportunity to do it twice. And cupcakes were an even more perfect choice because I knew in my family nobody but Mom likes coconut cake (which means she never gets one for her birthday) and I was pretty sure nobody else in Bill's family did either.

In my ongoing attempt to get away from my old stand-by recipes, I went in search of a new white cake recipe. Turned out I didn't need to look far. My dad gave me the Texas Country Reporter Cookbook for Christmas a few years ago, and I've tried a few things in it. When I went to cakes, I found Sam Houston White Cake. From the cookbook: "According to legend, this was Sam Houston's favorite cake recipe." So, I had to try it. I tried to make the White Mountain Frosting from my Betty Crocker cookbook, but that didn't work out so well, so I went back a traditional buttercream. I made half the batch of cupcakes with white buttercream and coconut and the other half I made my first attempt at ganache--all I can say about that is yum.

As this was my first attempt, I'm not sure it was quite as much of a coconut cake as it probably should have been, but I know what I'll differently next time!

Sam Houston White Cake
(adapted from Texas Country Reporter Cookbook)

Ingredients:
3/4 c. margarine or butter, softened
2 c. sugar
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. water
1 tsp. almond extract
6 egg white at room temperature

1. Cream butter and gradually add sugar, beating well.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and water.

 

3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with mild mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix well after each addition.

4. Stir in almond extract.

5. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into batter.

6. Pour batter into three greased and floured 9-inch round cake pans.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool.

Sissy's Variations:
I'm all about sifting these days, even recipes aren't calling for it, so I sifted the dry ingredients. Like I said, I baked these as cupcakes--it made about 2 dozen large.

 

I filled up the muffin pans a little more than I probably should have, but I still though the result was great.

 

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
(from the Betty Crocker Cookbook)

Ingredients:
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. butter or stick margarine, softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 to 2 tbsp. milk

1. Mix powdered sugar and butter in medium bowl with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tbsp. of milk.

2. Gradually beat in just enough remaining mild to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more mild, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar. Frosts 13 x 9-inch cake generously, or fills and frosts an 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake.

Sissy's Variations:
Here's where the coconut part of the cake came in. I frosted the cupcakes generously and topped with flaked coconut and toasted coconut. Sorry for the bad picture--bad lighting in MIL's kitchen!

 

Chocolate Ganache
(from the Betty Crocker Cookbook)

Ingredients:
2/3 c. whipping (heavy) cream
6 ounces semisweet baking chocolate, chopped

1. Heat whipping cream in 1-quart saucepan over low heat until hot but not boiling; remove from heat.

2. Stir in chocolate until melted. Let stand about 5 minutes. Ganache is ready to use when it mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon. It will become firmer the longer it cools.

3. Pour ganache carefully onto top center of cakes; spread with large spatula so it flows evenly over top and down to cover side of cake. Glazes 13 x 9-inch cake or top and side of an 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake.

Overall, I thought the cake part was just okay--not quite moist enough for my taste, but my mother-in-law loved it asked for the recipe. She thought it was the perfect amount of coconut, but I think I will try using coconut extract next time--maybe in both the cake and the icing, or maybe just the icing. Recommendations welcome! As for the ganache, I will definitely make this again. I can't believe I've gone this long without it in my life.