Dark Chocolate Cake

This is my favorite chewy, chocolate cake. It was delicious!

INGREDIENTS: 

2C Flour

1 1/3 C Sugar

1 ½ t baking soda

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

( I couldnt find unsweetened..or sweetened...just plain cocoa)

1/2C melted butter

1 ½ C hot water

1 tsp. vanilla

1 C sauerkraut (pureed until smooth)

1 tsp. cocoa

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven 350 degrees

Coat Bundt pan with cooking spray

Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda and 2/3 C cocoa

Add melted butter, hot water and vanilla. Mix well

Add sauerkraut and blend thoroughly

Pour into pan and bake until tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean…50-55 minutes

Cool cake in pan for 20 min. and then turn out on to baking rack to cool completely

Sprinkle cake with 1 tsp cocoa before slicing.

Don't mention the sauerkraut until it's been tasted !

Pumpkin Spice Cake

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup applesauce

2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cup pumpkin

4 eggs

2 cup flour

2 tsp baking soda

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon (or more)

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

dash of cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine sugar and the oil. Blend in the vanilla, applesauce and the pumpkin. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

Mix the dry ingredients together and beat into the pumpkin mixture until smooth.

Bake in a greased 9X13 pan or the batter makes great muffins or smaller size cakes too. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.

Cool then ice with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Beat 8 oz softened cream cheese with 1/4 cup butter and 1/2 tsp vanilla until smooth. Add 3 to 4 cups of powdered confectioners sugar ( I like it sweeter and add 4 cups) -- beat for a few minutes until creamy.

Zebra Cake

      Ingredients

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup milk (whole, 2% or 1%)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons Double Dutched Dark Cocoa

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 9" x 2" round baking pan with cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment, and spritz again. Set the pan aside.

2) In the bowl of your mixer, blend the sugar and eggs until lightened, about 2 minutes. On low speed blend in the oil, milk and vanilla until well combined and smooth.

3) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk to remove any lumps. Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine on medium speed 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and lump free. Be sure to scrape down the bowl halfway through mixing.

4) Remove 2 cups of the vanilla batter and place it in the measure you used for the liquid ingredients. Sift the cocoa over this batter, and stir well to combine. Be sure to use a sifter to avoid cocoa lumps in the batter.

5) Now for the stripes. Spoon about 3 tablespoons of vanilla batter into the center of the cake pan. Next, spoon 3 tablespoons of the chocolate batter into the center of the vanilla batter. This causes the vanilla batter to spread out. Continue to alternate batters, in bulls-eye fashion until all batter is used. You will now have thin rings of each batter on the outer edges of the pan, thicker rings towards the center.

6) Bake the cake in the center of the preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the cake is lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost as desired.