Let Them Eat (Diet) Cake!

Hungry Girl's email blast this morning was The Great Cake Debate: boxed cake variations involving everything from yogurt to pumpkin to diet soda.  I'm definitely going to try the pumpkin, applesauce and greek yogurt options, but I've been doing the diet soda thing for years and years.

Basically, you take a boxed cake mix you like, mix with 1 unchilled can of your favorite diet soda. Mix, pour into a non-stick pan (hit it with cooking spray first) and then bake at 350° according to the package instructions.  Easy peasy!

While Lisa (Hungry Girl) says the texture is light and fluffy -- and this is true -- it can get a little gummy, depending on the soda or cake mix you choose. I'm not sure why, but I've found that sometimes the top gets a bit tacky/sticky and after a day or so, the whole thing kind of gets dense. So if you plan on making this, I'd suggest serving immediately and, if stored tightly, not keeping it around for more than couple days.  But likely, it'll be polished off before then!

Lisa (Hungry Girl) likes the cream soda/yellow cake mix combo -- and I like that, too, but I think my personal favorite is Devil's Food cake with Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper or Red Velvet cake with Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda by Canfield.

But she brings up a good point -- if you're sensitive to aspartame (I've recently discovered that I am -- and suspect many people are and don't realize it), you might opt for a soda that contains Splenda (sucralose) or Stevia.  I personally loathe Stevia and find it really bitter, but I definitely recommend Hansen's Diet Natural Sodas, sweetened with Splenda.

Here's a run down of some flavor combo ideas I've actually tried:

• Chocolate Cake
  • Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper, Diet Cherry Vanilla Pepsi, Regular Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda or Diet Hansen's Natural Cola or Diet Hansen's Natural Root Beer
• Red Velvet Cake
  • Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda, Diet Cream Soda or a combo of both (half a can of each)
• Spice Cake
  • Diet Orange Soda (like Diet Sunkist, Diet Hansen's Natural Tangerine Lime) Diet Cream Soda or Diet Hansen's Natural Ginger Ale (yum!)
• Yellow Cake
  • Diet Cream Soda, hands down, but you could use Diet Hanse's Natural Ginger Ale, too
• Lemon Cake
  • Diet Hansen's Natural Ginger Ale, Diet citrus soda (like Diet 7-up or Diet Hansen's Natural Tangerine Lime)
• White/Vanilla Cake
  • Diet Lemon-Lime or Diet Cream Soda... or if you want a cherry vanilla flavor, go with Diet Hansen's Natural Black Cherry soda.

All of the Hansen's sodas are colorless (except for maybe cola and root beer, I can't recall) so on a lighter cake, they won't interfere with the color of the cake mix.  That's a nice surprise if you decide to do a cherry-flavored white cake or hint of lemon or something. I love Diet Hansen's soda, so I recommend them a lot -- I'm not endorsed by them or anything (though I'd welcome their advertisement *cough cough*). They have a lot of great flavors that I haven't mentioned, like pomegranate, peach, grapefruit and strawberry kiwi, so there are even more possibilities!

Now, frosting? That's another story.  Frosting, especially the kind in a tub, is like paste for your arteries. Tasty, tasty paste.  So as much as I'd love to crack open a can and shove my hand in up to the wrist, I usually go with Light or Fat Free Cool Whip with my soda cakes.  I break open a warm cupcake, put it in a bowl or on a small plate, add a dollop of Cool Whip Free (and maybe some fresh fruit, like berries if I'm so inclined) and go to town. 

According to Hungry Girl's newsletter, all of her cake mix combos, including the diet soda, yogurt and applesauce varieties, are 4 Points® per serving, but I've always found my soda cakes to be 3 Points® or less, depending on the size of the serving and the cake mix used.  I like to make mine into cupcakes (be SURE to lightly spray the liners or they will stick to the paper since there's no oil) for portion control or else I'll just cut a wedge the size of Texas and call it a serving. (I'm not sure how cake with yogurt, pumpkin and applesauce can all have the same amount of Points as cake with zero-calorie diet soda, as they must add calories to the equation, but I'm no food scientist.)

I think if they were really any more than 3 Points®, I would probably just skip the soda cake concept altogether, get a small piece of real cake and call it a day. I can't see spending more than 3 Points® on "diet dessert".  But that's just my opinion. It seems "expensive" for something that just isn't as satisfying. I'd rather have 5 or 6 Points® of awesome and a veggie-packed salad for dinner or run an extra lap than spend 4 Points® on a tiny 'diet' cupcake. (like some of those Smart Ones desserts? 4 Points® for  a 2-bite key lime pie? C'mon!)

But anyway, I am definitely going to try Hungry Girl's pumpkin and yogurt varieties because despite being 4 Points a serving, I could see those being really great for lite entertaining.

Ever made a diet soda cake? (or any of the other combos Lisa talks about?)  What's your favorite combo? What were your results?