Easy Fudge Layer Cake

As I mentioned earlier this week I spent part of the weekend in the air conditioning at John's parents house, baking a cake with his mom. She had mentioned the previous week that it had been ages since she baked a cake from scratch... Well I couldn't let that go on any longer! So I showed up silicon cake pans and ingredients in hand to make the cakes. We did a combo of healthy/ not totally super healthy ingredients, still no butter but we did use real sugar and 1% milk(i left the skim at John's house woops!) oh the horror! hahaah I'm just kidding it's not THAT bad!

On a side note she said I sounded like a cooking show as we were making it. "Ok now we are going to drizzle the chocolate over the top... sprinkle some hazelnuts... now doesn't that look great!"

Easy Fudge Layer Cake
(recipe adapted from eating well magazine)

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Hershey's 100% special dark cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/2 cup cinnamon apple sauce
1 1/4 cups 1% milk (i'll probably try doing it with skim next time)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs

for topping
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup 1% or skim milk
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
1/2 cup toffee crumbles
a little more powdered sugar for dusting the top

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine flour cocoa, baking powder, baking soda salt, and sugars. Form a well in the center and add apple sauce, milk and vanilla beat at low speed of a mixer 30 seconds or until ingredients are moist. Add eggs one at a time beating until well-blended.

Pour batter into pans. Sharply tap pans once on the counter to remove air bubbles. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center.

Cool in pans 5 minutes on a wire rack.

While cakes are cooling, place chocolate chips in a microwave sage bowl and micowave for 1 minute, remove and stir until chocolate is all melting, add milk and continue stirring. Place back in the microwave for 30 seconds remove and stir until milk and chocolate are totally incorporated. Slowly add powdered sugar to thicken the sauce. Set aside.

When the pans are cool enough to touch place a rack over the top of the pan and flip the cake over, it should fall out of the silicon without any issue. (Seriously silicon pans rock my world, love it!)

Place 1 cake layer on a plate, and drizzle with half of the chocolate mixture. Sprinkle 1/4 cup hazelnuts and 1/4 cup toffee. Top with remaining cake layer; drizzle remaining chocolate mixture on top of cake and sprinkle with remaining hazelnuts and toffee. Dust with powdered sugar.

Chow!