A Simply Delicious, Chocolate Cake

My husband's favorite is chocolate cake, with chocolate icing.  For his birthday, I went on a search for a new chocolate cake recipe.  I found a great one that I adjusted slightly to make it as healthy as possible, for chocolate cake!
My inspirational recipe can be found here Beatty's Chocolate Cake Recipe

This is what the cake looked like. I forgot to take a picture of the actual cake it looked this good!

Here's my adapted recipe.

Non stick cooking spray for pans

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups good cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/2 cup applesauce

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate Frosting, recipe follows

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans with non stick cooking spray. Then flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Chocolate Frosting:

• 3 ounces fat free Cream Cheese, softened
• 1/4 pound (1 stick) salted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup fat free milk

In a mixing bowl, mix cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add cocoa powder and powdered sugar. Mix well. Add vanilla.  Slowly add milk until frosting is smooth.  When cake is cooled, add frosting.

We kept the cake in the refrigerator because of the milk and cream cheese in the frosting.  It's delicious.

I promise you, you will not miss the oil in the cake. The applesauce makes the cake super moist.