Healthier (and YUMMY!) Red Velvet Cake

I love cake.  It is definitely my favorite food, always has been.  Cake is one of those things that I can't live without, but I try to eat healthy as much as I can.  This cake is absolutely delicious and SO much less fat than the original.   The cake leaves out Eggs, Oil and Water and only uses 1 cup of Diet Dr. Pepper. Seriously! I'm sure you could use Root Beer or Coke or whatever you want, but the diet makes it so the only calories are the cake mix.  The frosting is delicious too, has all the flavor of regular cream cheese frosting, but a fraction of the fat.  Now you can have your cake and ENJOY it too!

For the cake:

1 Box Red Velvet Cake Mix

8 oz (1 Cup) Diet Dr. Pepper

 

Stir cake mix and Dr. Pepper until combined. Don’t over mix.  Spray pan of choice with cooking spray ( lined muffin pans (2/3 full), 1 13x9 Pan, or 2 Round Cake pans). I made this in the 2 cake round pans.

Bake at 350 ~15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Put cakes on cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting: 

1 Package (8oz) Reduced Fat Cream Cheese

8 Tbsp (1/2 cup) Light Butter or Reduced Fat Margarine

2 Tbsp Milk

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

16 oz Powdered Sugar

 

Combine cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla with an electric mixer (or by hand if you’ve got the energy).  Slowly add powdered sugar on low speed so you don’t make a mess. If the frosting is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar. If it’s too stiff, add a little more milk.  You can adjust these until you have the desired consistency.

Put it all together: 

 

Once cake has cooled, frost however you like. Cream cheese frosting is a little more thin than buttercream, so it doesn’t mold well.  I put a layer of frosting in between my two round cakes, then added a layer of frosting to the top of the cake. I thought it looked pretty, but you can do the sides if you want to as well.

Enjoy!