Chocolate Strawberry Balsamic Cake

Early summer means strawberries. Lots of ruby red, sweet-tart, delicate fruit. With an extra basket or two hanging around the fridge it was time to get baking. Strawberry shortcake is the obvious (and delicious) answer to this kind of strawberry excess. But its not well suited to travel and making ahead. So time to get creative. I found this recipe at SusanV's blog and inspiration struck. I've altered the original significantly to fit my flavor and ingredient profile. Hopefully it works. Let me know what you think.

Chocolate Strawberry Balsamic Cake

2 cups AP flour

1 cup WW flour

1 1/2 cups sugar (I used turbinado)

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cocoa

1 cup soy milk

2 1/2 cups pureed strawberries (plus 1/4 cup for glaze)

1/4 balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Heat oven to 350F. Grease (or spray with non-stick spray) and dust with cocoa a bundt pan.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa in a large bowl. In a separate bowl combine strawberry puree, soy milk, vinegar and vanilla. Add all at once to flour mixture and beat well.

Pour evenly into prepared bundt pan and bake for 30-40 minutes until cake springs back and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for at least ten minutes in pan before turning out to cool completely. Glaze with strawberry-balsamic glaze.

Glaze

about 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

up to 1/4 cup strawberry puree

1-2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Why are these measures so vague? Because this is a "to taste" kind-of deal. And really depends on how wet your strawberries are and the humidity. Basically mix enough liquid (strawberry and vinegar) into sugar to make a glaze that flows off of a spoon in a thick even stream.

This is a cake - not a health food . . . BUT, if you're interested in these kinds of things, it is vegan and low fat. It is almost no-fat but the soy milk and cocoa both have some fat . . . so not quite. If you wanted to make it even healthier increase the ratio of whole wheat to all purpose flour (definitely recommend getting a good whole wheat pastry flour if your going to do this), use light soy milk, and decrease sugar by up to a third. But of course, I won't be responsible for your results and really - it is cake after all.

For a small piece (1/20 of cake) 171.4 calories, .9g Fat, 250.7mg Sodium, 119.2mg Potassium, 40 Carbs (2.8g Fiber, 22.5g Sugars) 3.2g Protien ~ 3 WW points

Enjoy!

Jennifer