Dark Chocolate Mocha Cake

I made this cake recently when I needed a dessert that tasted decadent, but wasn't outrageously unhealthy. This is another one of Ellie Krieger's fantastic recipes, and I've made it before. It's a pretty basic chocolate cake, but made with a few simple swap-outs to lower the calories and fat. Some espresso is thrown into the mix, which obviously pairs up excellently with the chocolate. The cake is frosted with a reduced-fat cream cheese frosting spiked with more espresso. Simple, yet delicious.

Evan's making this sad, worried face because he isn't sure what's going on with the Craving Ellie in My Belly group! Ok, I'm kidding. He was actually making that face because we were inside a capsule in the St. Louis Gateway Arch, going up to the top to look out from the observation windows. He was pretty unsure of what was going on, but he handled it like a trooper! He was even good the whole time we were at the top of the Arch, much to my surprise.

We really don't know what's going on with the CEIMB group, though. There haven't been any new recipes assigned to us, so I didn't have a recipe to make for this Thursday. I figured I'd cover my bases and post about this cake, since it is an Ellie creation. I'm hoping we get some new recipes to make for next week, since I've really enjoyed being a part of this blogging group and definitely do not want to stop.

In the meantime, though, try this cake! It's fabulous for fulfilling a chocolate craving. It's tender and moist, and it's just sweet enough without being super sweet. Oh, and a final note about it: I've made it before with regular cocoa powder, but this time I switched it up and made it with Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder. What a difference! It was pitch dark and heavenly. I sprinkled milk chocolate shavings across the top of the cake, and it was perfect.

The recipe for the Chocolate Mocha Cake can be found here.