Chocolate Cherry Pudding Cake

I saw this recipe for chocolate cherry pudding cake in 1001 Low Fat Vegetarian recipes long time back. I decided to bake this on Father’s Day with my son. He loves to help me while baking. He is my cute little sous chef.
This pudding cake recipe is originally low in fat (oil free and butter free). If it had been any other day I would have substituted the all purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour and made it vegan by using soy milk instead of dairy milk. I didn’t do either because I was (or we were) baking it for my husband and didn’t want to mess it up. He doesn’t like soy milk sometimes and I really can’t predict it when! Also it was suggested that the cake had to be served warm and from my prior experiences with whole wheat flour I know that it does not taste good immediately after baking. So I went with all purpose flour. Even after putting so much thought into this cake it sort of flopped but continue to read further to know how I gave it a tasty makeover. Yes, yes I know what you all are thinking, showing off my (kitchen) disaster management skills!
Yield: 12-16 servings.
2 In a large bowl, combine together the flour, granulated sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa and baking powder.
3 Stir in milk and applesauce to the dry ingredients until just moistened.
4 Fold in the cherries and nuts. The cake batter is very thick at this stage.
5 Spoon into the greased pan.
6 Mix the brown sugar, hot water and 1/4 cup cocoa in the same large bowl, until smooth; pour over batter.
7 Bake for 35-40 minutes or until set (cake will have a pudding like texture). Serve warm or at room temperature.
As the name suggests, this is a pudding cake. There is pudding in the bottom and cake on top. Frankly the three of us did not like it. The chocolate cake alone was very good, especially for a fat free one it was quite tasty, but we did not like the combination of pudding and a cake. First you bite into a firm cake then follows this ooey gooey pudding. To be more specific, it’s kozha kozha (non Tamilians please excuse me. I had to use this word to be very clear at least for Tamilians.) So if you have already tasted a pudding cake and like it you can go ahead and try this low fat version.
But what did we do with such a big cake, when we didn’t like it? That’s when a light bulb flashed and I put the cake (of course with the pan) in the freezer. I thought that it would taste like an ice cream cake and I was right. Yay! Freeze it for a couple of hours and remove it from the freezer and leave it on the kitchen counter for 15-25 minutes before serving, so that the pudding layer would soften up a little bit making it easy to eat (but not ooey gooey at all). Then cut them into slices and enjoy. Refreeze the rest of the cake.
2 While using a glass baking pan it is suggested to reduce the oven temperature by 25F or to bake 5-10 minutes less than the specified time. I have used a glass baking pan and so baked the cake at 325F. If you are using any other pan set the oven at 350F.
3 While reading the recipe I was not sure if the quantity of baking powder (3 tablespoons) was correct. I proceeded anyhow and was relieved that the cake did not have the after taste of baking powder.
4 Measure the 3 cups of boiling water in a liquid measuring mug. While pouring it over the cake batter it may look like that it’s a lot, but don’t worry the cake will turn out fine.
This chocolate pudding cake goes to my low-fat baking event and
Mansi’s Sugar High Friday.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.












June 25th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
You are too wicked to post this
June 25th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Cherry and chocolate sounds like a delectable combo!!
June 25th, 2009 at 9:37 am
That looks so tempting…The word flop is no where near it. Nice idea…
June 25th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Somehow Iam not turning my head towards eggless baking though I wanted to.Its all perception you know:)…These cakes look delicious, May be I will start with this one.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
What awesome pics!, I am seriously drooling here!!
June 24th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Nice rescue Madhu. Its such a relief when you can do that..
I feel so guilty throwing away food.
June 24th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
I like that description – kozha kozha:). I have a similar recipe that I haven’t tried wondering how the cake and the pudding will set. Thanks for the review!
You’re welcome Sunshinemom. It sets well, no problem with that, but it’s the texture we did not like.
June 24th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I am still laughing over the “kozha kozha” comment!! Looks you did an awesome save. The end result looks a lot like a brownie. Yummy!!
Yes Kalai it did taste like a brownie too.
June 24th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
looks actually good, it looked like a brownie to me…, it even doesn’t look like a make over from a disaster !, you are a great baker ! they look absolutely yum to me !….
June 24th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Madhu,
wow looks like a cool cake to try!
can we use whole wheat flour instead of all purpose flour in all your recipes? I am confused on where to use what? can u suggest? i see u use all purpose in some, whole wheat in some and in some whole wheat pastry.
Hi Sai, as I have mentioned in the post, we do not like the taste of baked goods immediately after baking if using whole wheat flour. It has a raw smell. We prefer eating it the next day. So it’s your call. The same thing holds good to other recipes too. I personally feel that using whole wheat flour/pastry flour in chocolate/cocoa recipes make it (the raw smell/earthy taste) less noticeable.