Fat-Free Chocolate Cake (No, I am not Kidding)

 Being that it is Green Day,

and being that I am

a bit o' the ole I-reesh,

I thought I'd share with you this recipe that is very near and dear to my heart.

Here we go:

 Mix the flour, cocoa, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

in a nice big red bowl.

 Dump the sugar into the water and whisk up.

I used raw sugar.

Yes, my water has been replaced here,

as I'm sure you have noticed.

I'm terrible at obeying instructions.

Please envision that it is water.

(it is actually buttermilk and whey,

left-over from my earlier adventure of making cream cheese

and butter.  I really don't know if these are fat-free,

so if you want the "Fat-free" version,

using water would definitely do it.)

 After whisking for a minute,

ad the egg whites and corn syrup,

stirring until blended
(next time I'm going to try molasses so it's healthier.

Do you think that would ruin it?

Maybe I should just try staying with the directions,

maybe.)

 Gradually stir the liquids

into the dry ingredients.

 Ignore this photo as well,

if you are sticking with the fat-free version.

I got these nuts from our own tree,

so, of course, they are fat-free.

(Yes, I am deceived.)

Really though, I did gather these walnuts last fall,

and my father shelled them all for me

(he's very helpful that way,

especially since I had him shell about 300 hundred nuts

and there were about 50 good ones in the whole lot.

Such a good man,

although he did tell me to go out and just buy some next year.)

 Pour the smooth batter

(because there won't be any nuts in the real recipe)
into your sprayed pan,

(Now I only poured a small portion of this batter into this pie plate,

because I wanted to do something a little extra fun

for our "Irish" dessert

and I poured the rest...

Here,

where there was

one more alteration on my part:

 but there IS a reason fort this!

The reason I did this is because

there is a frosting recipe to make with this cake

using non-fat cream cheese and cocoa,

but I decided to skip that and just make these into brownies.

There is a teensy bit of fat in the frosting recipe,

and I will give you that in the end of my terrible display of not obeying instructions.

Just in case you are wondering,

the truly non-fat version of this cake is TERRIFIC!!

My mother-in-law got this recipe from her friend,

and when she made it,

following all directions,

it was SUPERB.

 Yes, I added some little white fellows

and some little chocolate tiny ones as well.

Just about 3 Tbs. of chocolate or so,
and 1/2 cup of mini marshmellows:

very minimal.

It was then baked at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.

This is how it looked when done.

The marshmellows took on a decidedly blackened coating,

but the taste definitely made up for the looks.

 My farmer even had seconds,

very large seconds,

and he doesn't "like" chocolate cake.

 So now

I am going to give you an added recipe

(that is not fat-free,

although, it is definitely LOW in fat)

because it's just the way we Irish lasses are,

(teeny-bit Irish.

After all, my Grandmother had hair as red as the ruddy face
of a leprechaun who's been robbed of his rainbow gold;

and also,
thanks to O'Henry
I realized I was in love with my Farmer,

which I do need to go back and finish the Nanny Story again sometime soon,

but not over a fat-free cake recipe

or a mostly fat-free pie alteration.

 Okay, so I got 1 1/2 cups of low-fat milk

(well, a mixture of milk with buttermilk and whey, because there was still about a cup left)

 added the sugar and heated it on low heat.

I then added cornstarch with the 1/2 cup of milk waiting on the side.

When the liquid in the pan is hot, the cornstarch milk gets added in,

stirring as it cooks for about 3 minutes,...

 until it thickens.

Some of this hot liquid was scooped out...

 and added to some beaten eggs.

 This egg mixture slowly gets added to the pot,

stirring constantly.

Continue to stir for about a minute,

and then take it off the heat.

 I added some

(gulp)

food coloring because I wanted it to be green.

Really,

I don't use it much; I wanted to find some spinach

and cook and blend it up to ad to make it green,

but I didn't have any.

So I caved and used 

artificial color.

Just this once.

Besides, I wasn't too sure that peppermint and spinach sounded too good together.

 Here it is looking like

Oscar the Grouch would approve.

At this point, you get to chose.

I grabbed some pure peppermint flavor out of my cupboard.

Grasshopper style for us.

Chocolate and peppermint.

Yum.

But really vanilla or maple would be great, too.

Not lemon.

Ooo, just the thought of lemon on chocolate makes my teeth cringe.

(Sorry, Farmer.

I know you think I make up entirely too many words and terms.

  I do know that teeth don't cringe,

but I'm not sure how else to describe it)

 So once the peppermint "pudding" was ready,

it became the top layer over the (mostly) fat-free cake.

 I heated up some chocolate chips and butter,

(throwing all fat-freeness away on this part)

and poured it in a strip across the top.

  A little swivel with the spatula this way,

a little swivel that way...

 And it's looking rather...

um...

Irish-ish...

Irishy...

Irishly...

A touch of spring on Irish day.

(Don't forget the great herbal give-away <here>.)

Here are the EASY-to-FOLLOW recipes:

Decadent Fat Free Chocolate Cake:

1 1/4 Cup flour

1/2 Cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 Cup corn starch

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/4 Cup sugar

1 Cup water

3 egg whites

1/2 Cup karo/dark corn syrup

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray 9x9 baking pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, corn starch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In medium bowl, stir the sugar and water with a wire whisk for 1 minute.  Add egg whites and corn syrup; stir until blended.  Gradually stir into the dry ingredients until smooth.  Pour into the pan and bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.  Ice with Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting or your favorite.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/2 block (4 oz.) low or non-fat cream cheese

2 Tbs. butter (softened)

3 Tbs. low-fat milk

3 1/3 Cup sifted powdered sugar

3/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Beat first three ingredients in a large bowl at high speed until smooth. Combine sugar, cocoa, salt.  Gradually add sugar mixture into mixture, beating on low until blended.  Add vanilla and beat in.  Cover and chill before frosting.

Peppermint Pudding Pie

2 Cups low-fat milk

1/2 Cup of sugar

2 1/2 Tbs. corn starch

1/8 tsp. salt

2 beaten eggs

2 tsp. flavor or your choice (vanilla, peppermint, walnut)

Pour 1 1/2 cups milk and the sugar into a heavy pan.  Heat over low temperature.  Stir.  In a cup, blend remaining milk with cornstarch.  

When the heating milk and sugar are hot, stir the cornstarch milk into it.  Stir until thickened, about 3 minutes.

Ladle about 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into the eggs and stir up.  Ad this to the pan on the stove and cook all for 1 more minute.  Remove from heat and ad flavoring.

Pour this onto prepared pie plate, preferable one with fat-free chocolate cake for a crust.

Heat about 3 Tbs. chocolate chips with 2 Tbs. butter.  Pour this in a straight line across your pie and then swivel a spoon through it to make it beautiful.

Enjoy!

Linked up to: Diary of a Stay At Home Mom: Cooking-Thursday
Kelly the Kitchen Kop: Real-Food-Wednesday
Fireflies and Jellybeans: Show-off-your-Stuff-party
Home is Where my Story Begins: Home-and-Family-Friday
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