Today is National Chocolate Cake Day. I was unaware of this fact until sometime late this morning. We also happen to be dealing with a big ice storm today, so I found myself in a bit of a situation: (1) sudden desire for chocolate cake, and (2) a rather pathetic pantry where chocolate cake baking is concerned, and (3) icy roads that made a quick trip to the grocery store a bit of a fool's errand.
After a bit of digging around on the internet, I found a recipe for cake that would work with what I had on hand, and a different recipe for frosting that would work.
First: The Cake
I found a recipe for chocolate cake using Greek yogurt on this blog, Chocolate and Carrots. I made a couple of tiny adaptations based upon what I had on hand.
Easy Chocolate Greek Yogurt Cake
You need:
1 Cup sugar
2 Cups flour
4 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 Cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt
1 Cup skim milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9" pan (square or round) with cooking spray.
Mix your dry ingredients in one bowl. Whisk the yogurt, skim milk, and vanilla together in a different bowl. Pour the wet ingredients in with the dry ingredients and stir well. Pour cake batter into prepared pan, bake for 35-45 minutes; use a toothpick to test for done-ness. (The original recipe called for 35 minutes; mine wasn't done at that point and took an additional 7 minutes.) Allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then turn out onto serving plate.
Best part about making this cake? No eggs. You get to lick the beaters without worrying about getting food poisoning. Also? It's easy and you don't have to haul out a mixer to make it.
Now on to the frosting:
I found this recipe along with a cake recipe on Never Homemaker, but didn't have the right stuff to make the cake. The frosting looked easy and do-able though.
Peanut Butter Greek Yogurt Frosting
You will need:
3/4 Cup plain, non-fat Greek yogurt
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1/2 Cup creamy peanut butter (Nutella would also be awesome here)
3/4 Cup powdered sugar
Mix the yogurt, vanilla and peanut butter together and stir until well combined. Add the powdered sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. (I used my Kitchen Aid with the whisk attachment for this frosting and it turned out very smooth, but I also think you could easily do this by hand or with a hand mixer.) Spread frosting on cooled cake. Store frosted cake in refrigerator.
(You'll notice from the picture up above that we also scattered some chocolate chips on top. My youngest was absolutely indignant that I didn't put any sprinkles on the cake. I mollified her with chocolate chips.)
So, how was it?
Pretty good, actually. The cake is more dense than your typical boxed-cake-mix cake and it has a nice chocolate flavor. It would take additions really well, so if you want to add some chocolate chips or nuts, go ahead. And while the cake got thumbs-up from everyone at the table, the reaction to the frosting was a bit more mixed. Personally, I loved the frosting. But I'll admit, the slightly sour taste of the Greek yogurt does come through pretty strongly. I think that is balanced out by the sugar, and I think that it goes well the the peanut butter. My husband and kids weren't all that crazy about it though. I think a more traditional peanut butter frosting would be good on this cake, but I also think it'd taste fantastic with traditional chocolate frosting. I also kind of want to try it with some cherries and whipped cream - it would make an awesome Black Forest-type cake, I think.
All in all, it was a nice way to celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day, even when your cake-making ingredients are limited.
