Double Chocolate Triple Sec Cake

I picked up my mail today and along with the usual magazines, bills, and junk, there was a box shaped like a book with a return address from Reiman Publications. Uh oh. My thoughts immediately went back to 11th grade when I ordered what I thought was a book on Impressionism from the Time Life Company. It soon became clear that every month an additional art book would show up in the mailbox as part of the "series" I ordered. I could keep the new books or bring them back to the post office to be returned to Time Life. As I can be lazy now, I was even lazier back then and ended up with a collection of books I had no interest in. After this little life lesson I swore I would never order a series of anything again. And I haven't. It was my good fortune today to have received the Healthy Cooking 2010 Annual Recipes book for free. It's very similar in style to the Southern Living Annual I picked up a few weeks ago at Marshall's.



Last year Healthy Cooking published a recipe of mine in their April/May issue, and this annual is their gift to me. The recipe is called Chocolate Orange Cake and was the lead recipe in their "Eat to Beat Diabetes" section. Since it's geared towards those with some serious health issues, I'm especially proud to have succeeded in creating something that's really tasty and works for people that have dietary limitations.

Anyway, I originally called the cake "Double Chocolate, Triple Sec" but leading off with liquor in the title wasn't too conducive for the diabetic crowd, so the name was changed to something more generic. I do love that little play on words, so I had to mention it at least once in print. Here's the recipe:

Chocolate Orange Cake aka Double Chocolate Triple Sec Cake

2 tsp plus 1/3 cup baking cocoa, divided
1/3 cup quick cooking oats
2/3 cup reduced fat sour cream
1/3 cup Splenda sugar blend
2 eggs
3 T Triple Sec or orange juice
2 T butter melted
5 tsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
2 tsp grated orange peel

FROSTING:
4 oz reduced fat cream cheese
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tsp grated orange peel
2 tsp orange juice

1. Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8 inch square baking dish with cooking spray and sprinkle with 2 tsp cocoa; set aside. Place oats in a small food processor, cover and process until ground. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the sour cream, sugar blend, eggs, Triple Sec, butter, oil and vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, salt and remaining cocoa; gradually beat into sour cream mixture until blended. Stir in chocolate chips and orange peel.
3. Transfet to reserved dish. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.
4. For frosting, in a small bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add the confectioners' sugar, orange peel and juice; beat until smooth. Frost top of cake. Refrigerate leftovers.

I think you'll really enjoy this cake. I haven't made it in a while, probably because when I was testing it I made it over and over and over again, and didn't want to see it for some time. I'm ready now!

One more thing- I quickly looked at the recipes in this annual and they look pretty interesting-especially their desserts. Plus every recipe has nutrition facts such as calories/fat/carbs/sodium/fiber. You get the idea. And if you don't pick up the book this year, you'll probably see it at Marshall's next year for a song.