Pineapple Chocolate Cake with White Chocolate Drizzle

Whenever I see a "butter substitute", I see the usual apple sauce, pureed pumpkin, and coconut oil - which are perfectly fine but I wanted to use something different. Something that I personally have never really thought of. As I was going through my pantry, I saw nothing...There's my apple sauce and I must say, I was tempted to use it but my heart told me to use something else. Will I shoot for the tofu like I do with my vegan brownies? No, I wanted to do something different.... Then I saw those no sugar added crushed pineapple cans who was hiding behind the powdered sugars and I thought, this must be it. I mean, it's very similar to apple sauce right?

I must say, the pineapples worked out perfectly! The chocolate cake turned out so soft and moist! My family got a real kick out of them (:

Have you checked out my Instagram? @nobutterbaking 

Servings: 16 squares

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil 
• 2 Tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
• 2 eggs 
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 1/2 cup crushed pineapple (juice drained) 
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips 

Instructions: 

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit 
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and whisk them well. 
• In a large bowl, combine the vegetable oil, cocoa powder, and vanilla extra and mix well. 
• Add the eggs, mix gently followed by adding the crushed pineapples. 
• In about 2-3 increments, gently fold the flour mixture into the wet ingredients. 
• Either grease or place parchment paper on a baking dish. (The ones I used are 9x9) 
• Pour the brownie batter and bake for about 30 minutes (or until it is baked through - remember the toothpick trick! Once you poke the brownies with toothpick and there's not batter on the pick, you're good to go!) 
• Once it is baked, place it on a rack for it to cool. 
• While you are waiting for your brownies to cool, use a microwave-safe bowl and heat the white chocolate chips. Once the white chocolate chips are melted, drizzle it on top of the cooled brownie. 

Batter before placed in the oven - do you see how they look clumpy? That's the crushed pineapples!

What I love about using crushed pineapples is that they are naturally sweet, which means you don't have to add excessive amount of sugar and it's still sweet enough for a cake. Think about it, when you purchase a cake from an outside bakery, you don't have any control on the amount of sugar that is inside the cake. What's great about baking at your home is that you can take control on what is inside the food that you bake or cook - isn't that amazing? 

The purpose behind me baking this is because it was one of my coworker's last day. He is genuinely the nicest person I've ever met who is always willing to help and support everyone. He was very loved by many of the other employees which says so much about a person's characteristics. Whenever I bake something, he'd always give me wonderful compliment which is so encouraging as a baker. I wasn't sure if he liked this particular cake, but I hope he understood that he gay joy to many of us and that the new employees are lucky to have him (: 

With that being said, from my kitchen to yours, Happy Baking! 

Smiles, 

Mei