Cook's Illustrated

Lighter Chocolate Bundt Cake

Published April 2, 2007.

Low-fat Bundt cakes look great—but with reduced fat, can they still deliver great taste?

The Problem

Despite their tantalizing looks, most low-fat chocolate Bundt cakes deliver a minimum of chocolate flavor, and many are dry, rubbery, and devoid of any flavor whatsoever.

The Goal

We wanted to improve upon these low-fat disasters and create a chocolate Bundt cake that tasted as good as it looked, with a fine crumb, moist texture, and rich chocolate flavor.

The Solution

First we replaced some of the chocolate with cocoa powder, which has less fat per ounce. We mixed the cocoa with hot water to bloom its flavor and used a little espresso powder to accentuate the over-all chocolate flavor. We also replaced the butter with vegetable oil and used water in place of milk—both substitutions also helped bring out chocolate flavor. Finally, we used all brown sugar to retain moisture.

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