Mocha Pudding Cake: Fat Free and Decadent!

When do fat free, decadent, and dessert belong together in a sentence? You will find out when you have baked and tasted this Mocha Pudding Cake. Absolutely delicious, moist and chocolatey, you won't believe it's fat free. Some restaurants serve variations of this as Molten Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Lava cake. When I found this recipe as a teenager (and trust me, that's a long time ago) it was a chocolate pudding cake and had a bit of fat. I've changed it to be fat free and added coffee flavor to it but you can leave out the coffee if you don't like it. Without the coffee experiment with it with other flavors added if you like: orange essence and zest; raspberry flavoring; mint extract. Enjoy the basic recipe here

Mocha Pudding Cake

2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup flour (I use unbleached all purpose flour)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
(the 2 tablespoons to be set aside)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup non fat milk
1/4 cup prepared strong coffee
1/4 cup applesauce (thick baby applesauce is best)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup brown sugar

1 cup boiling water (do not mix into the batter!)

Combine in a large bowl: granulated sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and salt. Stir together
Add milk, coffee, vanilla, and applesauce to the bowl and stir to combine well. Pour into an 8 inch square or round
baking pan that has been coated with cooking spray.

Combine brown sugar with 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Evenly sprinkle over the cake batter in the pan.
Do NOT mix it in. Carefully pour the 1 cup boiling water over the batter...again, do NOT stir it in. Trust me.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back when lightly touched. A toothpick test will not work because it creates a pudding under the cake. Remove from oven, loosen the edges of the cake and turn over onto a cake plate, making sure to scoop out every bit of the warm pudding for a topping. If you prefer you can serve straight from the pan, scooping some of the pudding from the bottom.

Enjoy!