Coffee-Chocolate Marble Cake

Yes, you can diet and eat cake, because this cake is super healthy and super delicious. Yesterday, Mama bought me a bundt pan, which has been on my list of things to get for quite sometime now. I was so excited when I saw it, that there wasn’t a doubt in my mind of what I was going to make for dessert.

I found a wonderful recipe in Better Homes & Gardens: Eat Well, Lose Weight. If you have this book, you can find this recipe on page 416. Better Homes & Gardens has a wonderful selection of healthy desserts. Though this cake is virtually fat free, I couldn’t help but feel like I indulged. How could dieting taste sooo good?!

I actually ‘improvised’ this recipe a bit. Though it was already healthy, I completely cut out the salt and replaced the canola oil with apple sauce. However, I did put a tad bit more sugar and exchanged the vanilla extract for a little bit of rum extract. This recipe is super easy to prepare. Do enjoy & have a blessed, glorious weekend! Coffee-Chocolate Marble Cake (Semi-adapted from Better Homes & Gardens: Eat Well, Lose Weight)
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

For marble cake you will need:
2½ cups sifted cake flour or 2¼ cups AP flour (I used cake flour)
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1¼ cups buttermilk
1¾ cups granulated sugar
½ cup apple sauce
2 eggs
½ teaspoon rum extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons instant coffee or espresso
Confectioner’s sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour your fluted tube pan. Next, set aside ½ cup flour. In a large bowl, combine remaining 2 cups cake flour or 1¾ cups AP flour, baking powder and baking soda.

In bowl of electric mixer, with paddle attachment, whisk together buttermilk, sugar, apple sauce, eggs, and rum extract. Add flour mixture to buttermilk mixture and whisk until well combined. In a separate medium-size bowl, combine cocoa powder and espresso powder. Add half of the buttermilk-flour mixture (about 1¾ cups) to cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth. Add reserved ½ cup flour to remaining buttermilk-flour mixture, whisking until combined.

Evenly spoon half of the white batter into prepared pan. Carefully spoon half of the cocoa batter onto the white batter in pan in an even layer. Repeat layers.

Bake for 30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean and cool on a wire rack.

*The original recipe called for a Coffee Drizzle Glaze, but instead I just dusted some powered sugar to keep it healthy.

xx,
Tammy