Skinnier Moist Chocolate Snack Cake

If you are not a fan of cake mixes, this recipe is NOT for you! I enjoy tinkering with the mixes to see what can be added to, subtracted from or substituted for the recommended ingredients. Today's play-time began with a box of Pillsbury Reduced-Sugar chocolate cake mix and a handful of cappuccino flavored baking chips. I am quite pleased with the results - a very moist, fragrant cake that is a little easier on my waistline than most. I'm recording my experiment here so I can do this one again.

• Ready In: 45 mins
• Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 1 (18 ounce) box  reduced-sugar chocolate cake mix
• 1⁄2 cup egg substitute (or use 2 eggs)
• 1⁄3 cup  vegetable oil
• 4  ounces prune baby food (1 jar)
• 3⁄4 cup nonfat milk (I used soy)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2  teaspoons instant coffee granules
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1  teaspoon  cinnamon extract
• 1⁄4 cup  cappuccino chips (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Coat bottom of 9-inch X 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
3. Throw all the stuff in a big, deep bowl and beat the heck out it with electric mixer; medium speed for 2 minutes. (If you use the optional chips, stir them in last unless you want them pulverized.).
4. Spread the batter into prepared pan. Batter will be thick, sorta like a brownie batter.
5. Bake for 35 minutes or till top springs back when touched, tester comes out clean and cake starts to pull away from sides of pan.
6. NB - I tried something I read in an America's Test Kitchen cookbook - rotated the pan at half-time (~16 minutes). Supposedly, professional bakers do this to achieve an even rise. I do have a level-er than normal-for-me cake so I must have been baking in the dark for the past 40 years. ;-).
7. I like it best still warm, straight up without icing or any decorative frou-frou. Feel free to pimp it up if you want to.