Guilt-Free Chocolate Cake

When I decided to give a birthday luncheon for my friend Kris who is on Weight-Watchers, I Googled “low-cal cake” and came up with Guilt-Free Chocolate Cake.

The recipe simply said:

Combine any chocolate cake mix with a can of Diet Coke and bake as directed on the cake mix box. Frost with Zero Cool Whip. Serve with sliced strawberries. 3 Weight-Watcher points a slice.

It also added the option to use an angel food cake mix with a can of Diet 7-Up.

I can’t tell you the last time I even bought a box of cake mix, preferring instead to just combine the 8 or so ingredients it takes to make a standard cake. Nor do I drink Diet Coke, although I happened to have a couple of cans left from my last party. Furthermore, who can imagine what such a cake would taste like.

But the recipe had gotten rave reviews from everyone who tried it.

So this morning I baked the chocolate version using a Betty Crocker Dark Chocolate cake mix. To my surprise it came out looking like a cake. It didn’t exactly come out of the pan in one piece, but the Cool Whip covered a multitude of sins.

My husband placed the 24 candles on the cake in the shape of her initials – KC. We were just a few short of her true age.

We sang “Happy Birthday” to the sound of the new grand piano. KC blew out the candles in a couple of blows. We did some serious damage to the Guilt-Free Chocolate Cake. And we declared her officially another year older and not even an ounce heavier.

Try this cake. It’s worth the cost of the cake mix and the one can of diet soda. Whoever knew?!