Mocha Swirl Bundt Cake - We Should Cocoa

As we all recover from the excesses of Christmas, Chele at Chocolate Teapot has set an apt challenge for this month's We Should Cocoa - to make a something healthy using chocolate in some form. The full rules for the We Should Cocoa challenge can be found on Chocolate Log Blog, the blog written by Chele's co-host Choclette.

Of course, 'healthy' has different meanings to everyone, often based on their own health issues. For us, or at least three of the four people that I cook for, reducing our intake of saturated fat is the main aim, as both Hubs and I take medication for high cholesterol, and my son, CT, is controlling raised cholesterol by diet. Since I started reducing the saturated fat in my baking, both Hubs and I have seen reduced cholesterol levels, and CT, who has made other dietary changes too, has brought his cholesterol down to acceptable levels.

So this challenge has been relatively easy for me; I am entering a variation of one of my favourite cakes made with oil instead of butter. Another way of making cakes made with chocolate even healthier is to use cocoa rather than chocolate, as cocoa is lower in fat than the same weight of chocolate, and in most cases less cocoa is required to give an acceptable chocolate flavour. This recipe uses 4 1/2 tablespoons, which is less than 50g.

I usually make this bundt cake as a chocolate, orange and chilli cake, but this time I have made a mocha version - flavouring the cake layers with coffee and cocoa. The original recipe is from Alice Medrich, but I have reduced it in size to fit my bundt tin, and converted the ingredients from cup volumes to weights.

As always, this cake had a lovely close, moist texture. The coffee and chocolate flavours were quite subtle, and I think the cake may have been even better made with a flavourless oil, rather than olive oil - on this occasion I thought the flavour of olive oil was too much for the flavours of the cake.

Ingredients

4 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
4 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
3 teaspoons instant coffee granules
4 tablespoons water

320g plain flour
2 scant tsp baking powder
pinch salt
320g caster sugar
200ml light olive oil
4 cold eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
200ml cold semi-skimmed milk
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules, dissolved in the milk

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and prepare a 10-cup bundt tin (a tin which is at least 2.4 litres in capacity).
Put the first 4 ingredients into a small bowl and mix until they form a smooth paste; set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a small bowl; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, oil and vanilla until well blended and smooth. Whisk in the eggs 1 at a time, then continue whisking until the mixture is thick and pale - about 3 minutes with an electric hand whisk.
Reduce the whisk to a slow speed, then mix in 1/3 portions of the flour mixture alternately with the milk, whisking only as much as necessary to make a smooth batter.
Weigh out 400g of the batter into a bowl and mix in the cocoa paste mix.
Using 1/3 of each batter at a time, layer them alternately into the bundt tin, starting with the light coloured coffee batter.
Bake for about 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean; cool for 15 minutes in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Dust with a mix of cocoa and icing sugar before serving.