Chocolate Bottle Gourd Cake

Ingredients

• 0.3 cup all purpose flour 
• 0.5 teaspoon double-acting baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda 
• 3 tablespoons margarine/butter at room temperature (I used Promise, Heart Health)
• 2 tablespoons canola oil (Only if using applesauce)
• 0.3 cup hot-brewed coffee hot
• 3 tablespoons milk fat free
• 0.8 cup granulated sugar 
• 0.3 cup milk (Omit it if using Zucchini/Bottlegourd)
• 0.5 cup apple sauce unsweetened (you could use oil too)
• 0.3 cup cocoa powder unsweetened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 0.8 cup flour whole wheat
• 0.3 cup yogurt plain dry with measuring cup)

Equipment

• bowl
• frying pan
• baking paper
• oven
• knife
• hand mixer
• toothpicks
• cake form

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F for 15 minutes. Lightly grease an 8-inch round cake pan and dust it with cocoa powder. Update: I baked this cake before I knew about the parchment paper trick. Since I knew that I haven’t baked a cake without it. Take a sheet of parchment paper, place the pan you want to use on the paper and trace the shape with a pencil.
2. Cut it out. Spray the cake tin with non stick spray, place the parchment cut out and spray it lightly once again.Grate the bottlegourd/zucchini, if using. After grating I also coarsely chopped it with a knife. Measure 1 cup and transfer it to a bowl.
3. Let the water secrete from the gratings. If using the water you may omit the 1/4 cup of milk later.In a large bowl sift together the all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder and sugar. Make a well.
4. Add all the wet ingredients one by one.With an electric mixer, beat the mixture on low speed for 2-3 minutes until the dry and wet ingredients are well combined. Do not over beat it.
5. Add the grated bottle gourd/zucchini, if using.
6. Mix together.
7. Pour the batter in the prepared pan. Tap the pan a couple of times so the batter is spread evenly and there are no air bubbles.My cake was ready only around 38 minutes. I think it took longer because it was a dense batter with the whole wheat flour, applesauce and the bottle gourd. So start checking from about 20 minutes, depending upon the ingredients you are using. Toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake should come clean.Once out of the oven, transfer the pan to a wiring rack to cool. After about an hour remove the cake from the pan and let the cake cool completely before frosting. Update: If you follow the parchment trick, the cake will come out clean just after 15 minutes. This will also avoid excess moisture due to the heat trapped inside the pan.