A few weeks ago, I was pondering the fact that cake and a diet often don't get along, And the fact that I had, at that moment, an insatiable craving for cake. So, after trips to two different stores, I found weight watcher's snack cakes, which are fairly tasty, very small and ridiculously priced. So I said to myself, "I wonder if one could make higher fiber, lowfat cake themselves for less than $3.75 for 6 tiny ass cakes?", and I set out to answer that question.
I read ingredient information and cake recipes until I got bored and then went into the kitchen and cake out with something that had the texture, structure and appearance of chocolate cake. The flavor... well, it was... odd. It was by no means horrible, and was very edible, but was not the type of thing your average person would pick out as thier favorite cake. But the cake had potential.
It was that night that I realized that I could bake without a recipe. I had walked into the kitchen with an idea and a bunch of ingredients and had come out with something that was 3/4's of the way to what I wanted it to be without a recipe to guide me. From then on, I was obsessed. Every chance I got to ignore my husband and my dog to bake something instead, I took it, and still do. My eyes sparkle when I go to the store to discover that they have whole wheat cake flour or lecithin granules in the bulk bins. I spent half of vacation wishing I could cook something and the other half coming up with ideas of things I could cook when I got home. My freezer is presently filled with ziplock bags full of recent projects and I just filled another ziplock bag tonight.
I am being a little ridiculous with the whole thing, but I am determined, and I'm actually kind of good at what I'm doing. Sometimes I wonder if this new obsession combined with the eventual move back south will somehow magically launch a catering business for me or something. Somehow I doubt that I will ever be good enough to be a caterer without formal training epsecially while still being a social worker. You can't easily have a day job and develop a talent so much that you could solely live off of it. In addition, if I tried to pursue everything I was good at and could potentially develop into pocket change, I would still never get half the things I wanted to done, even if I had no job.
I am actually kind of odd in that I am reasonably good at a lot of creative things whereas most people are fabulously good at one or two things. If I tried to develop all these talents at once, I would never sleep and I would still never get any one of them very far developed. So, I'll never be on foodtv, never win a contest for wedding cakes and never own my own catering business, but this realization will not stop me from filling up one more ziplock bag and one more and one more until there's no more room in the freezer fridge or cabinets. Right now, I really love baking. Almost as much as I love my cute husband.
Since I love baking, I should share one of the recipes I've been working on with you guys. Most people seem to think the cupcakes are awsome as is, but I noted some modifications I'd like to try the next time I make spice cupcakes (it was chocolate tonight).
Vo0’s Diet Spice Caramel Cupcakes (a work in progress)
1 C Wheat Pastry/Cake Flour (available at health food stores and places where they have nifty bulk bins)
½ TSP Baking Soda
½ TSP Baking Powder
¾ TSP Salt
¾ TSP allspice
¾ TSP Nutmeg
1 TSP Cinnamon
6 TBL Super-fine/Caster's Granulated Sugar
2 Egg Whites
3 TBL Honey
1 ½ TSP Vanilla or Vanilla Extract
½ C Fat Free Sour Cream
2 TBL Melted Butter
½ C Apple Juice
½ C Rolled Oats or other Rolled hot cereal flakes (I used 7 grain flakes)
1 TBL flax seeds (optional)
¼ C Chopped Walnuts (optional)
4 TBL Smucker’s Sugar Free Caramel Ice Cream Topping (smucker’s with the sugar in is the wrong consistency, but other brands with sugar in may be substituted if they are thick and not at all runny)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray mini or regular sized non-stick muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray or place muffin cups in tin.
Sift Together first 7 ingredients in a medium to large sized bowl or carefully whisk them together if a sifter is not available.
Beat egg whites with a wire whisk or fork in a seperate large glass bowl until very foamy. Add sugar slowly while continuing to beat eggs. Add next 4 ingredients in the same way.
Add flour mixture and remaining ingredients except caramel sauce. Stir just enough to moisten evenly.
Put a teaspoon of batter into the bottom of each mini muffin tin or 2 teaspoons if using regular muffin tins. Place ½ teaspoon of caramel sauce in the middle of each cupcake or use 1 teaspoon if you are making regular sized cupcakes. Use remaining batter to fill cupcake tins at least ¾ of the way full.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or until fork inserted into cupcakes comes out with no batter on it (caramel sauce may stick to form regardless of doneness).
Mini cupcakes are right around 100 calories each(with or without flax and nuts). Big cupcakes are in the range of 150-180 calories each.
Possible modifications (things I might try changing since this recipe is a work in progress):
will definitely add more leavening (like maybe 3/4 tsp of baking powder and soda)--I accidentally added too much to a recipe I made tonight and I love the texture I ended up with.
Replacing 1 TBL of honey with 1 TBL brown sugar (additional apple juice might be necessary in this case)
Replacing ½ C of the wheat cake/pastry flour with ½ C of white cake/pastry flour
The problems I keep coming accross are that a. the texure is a little dense and chewy for my taste(although everyone else seems to think they're fine) and b. the wheat flavor is a little strong and the flavor of the cupcakes could be a little "smoother" overall.
Try them and tell me what you think. If you try the modifications, tell me how those worked.
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