Chocolate cake with freeze-dried strawberries

Chocolate birthday cake with freeze-dried strawberries

8
Points®
Total Time
1 hr 45 min
Prep
40 min
Cook
20 min
Serves
16
Difficulty
Easy
Here's a stunner of a chocolate cake, great for your next birthday party. No birthday coming up soon? Don't let that stop you! No celebrations needed to serve this fruit filled cake. Using canned pumpkin and monk fruit sweetener helps cut back on the fat and sugar in the cake. The best guarantee that the cakes will come out of the pans in one piece is to line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper rounds. To make the rounds, place the pans on the paper, trace outlines, and cut out the rounds.

Ingredients

Cooking spray

4 spray(s)

All-purpose flour

1¾ cup(s)

Unsweetened cocoa powder

¾ cup(s)

Sugar

½ cup(s)

Monk fruit sweetener with erythritol

cup(s)

Baking powder

1½ tsp

Baking soda

1½ tsp

Table salt

1 tsp

Canned pumpkin puree

1 cup(s), purée

Plain unsweetened almond milk

8 fl oz

Egg

2 large egg(s)

Canola oil

½ cup(s)

Light aerosol whipped cream

2½ cup(s)

Unsweetened fresh fruit

2 cup(s), chopped

Freeze-dried strawberries

1 oz, crumbled

Grated unsweetened chocolate

3 Tbsp

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Bring 3/4 cup water to boil. Coat two 9-inch cake pans with nonstick spray. Line bottoms of pans with 9-inch rounds of parchment paper. In large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, sugar, monk fruit sweetener, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In medium bowl, whisk pumpkin purée, almond milk, eggs, and oil until smooth. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Slowly whisk in 1/2 cup boiling water. (Batter will be wet.) Divide evenly between 2 prepared pans.
  2. Bake cakes, rotating pans halfway through baking, until tester comes out clean when inserted into centers of cakes, about 20 minutes. Let cakes cool in pans for 10 minutes. Invert onto wire racks. Remove cake pans and parchment paper. Let cool completely.
  3. Freeze cakes for 15 minutes for easy assembly. Place 1 cake, flat- side down, on cake plate. Evenly spread 11/2 cups whipped topping to cover cake. Top with fresh fruit. Add top layer of cake, flat-side up. Spread remaining whipped topping over top. Garnish cake with freeze-dried strawberries.
  4. Serving size: 1 slice