Tag: cake

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Dessert

Say ‘halo’ to sugar-free angel food cake

It looks like a normal angel food cake, but this one uses a sugar substitute, making it a good option for people watching their sugar intake.
It looks like a normal angel food cake, but this one uses a sugar substitute, making it a good option for people watching their sugar intake.

With a few family members on low-sugar diets, I often try to integrate desserts with sugar substitutes into our get-togethers when I bring something sweet for after dinner.

For Mother’s Day, I decided to try out a recipe for a sugar-free angel food cake for that purpose.

Now, let me give a disclaimer that while this recipe is dubbed “sugar free,” it’s not really 100-percent free of sugar. It uses vanilla extract, which has sugar in it, and if you’re like me and pair it with some fresh fruit, you’ll get natural sugars from that, too.

But it’s extremely low in sugar, which makes it not only a bit healthier as desserts go but also a good option for someone who needs to keep their sugar intake to a minimum.

Another thing to note is the sugar substitute I used converts cup for cup with regular sugar, so I used the full amount listed in the recipe. Some sugar substitutes are a lot sweeter than the real stuff, so they recommend using a fraction of the amount. I’d recommend reading the package of whatever substitute you buy to make sure you’re not overdoing it on the sweetness.

I used a recipe from the blog “Living Sweet Moments” by Tiffany Bendayan. You can find it at https://livingsweetmoments.com/sugar-free-angel-food-cake/. I decided not to mess around with the flavoring on this one, because angel food cake is all about the chemistry, and I didn’t want to screw up the consistency.

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Sugar-free Angel Food Cake

It looks like a normal angel food cake, but this one uses a sugar substitute, making it a good option for people watching their sugar intake.
Course Dessert
Keyword angel food, cake, sugar-free

Ingredients

  • 12 egg whites at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar substitute
  • pinch of salt

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
  • Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Beat in the vanilla.
  • Sift the flour, cornstarch, sugar substitute and salt together and then add it little by little, folding it into the egg whites very gently (you want to keep it as voluminous as possible).
  • Dump the mixture into an ungreased angel food cake pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the cake springs back when you touch it.
  • Invert the cake pan onto the neck of an empty glass bottle (like a pop, wine or beer bottle) to cool.
  • Once the cake is cooled completely, run a knife around the outside of the cake to remove it from the pan. Do the same to the bottom of the pan. You may need to trim the cake to make it sit evenly on a plate.
  • Make sure to store the cake in an airtight container so it doesn’t dry out, and serve it with your favorite fresh fruit and some sugar-free whipped cream or ice cream, too.

This didn’t rise nearly as much as full sugar angel food cake normally does for me. I’m not sure if that was just how this recipe is or if it was the humid weather making it act up, but if yours doesn’t rise all the way to the top of the pan, don’t worry. It’ll still be nice and fluffy and airy. (At least mine was.)

We enjoyed our angel food cake along with fresh strawberries and some vanilla ice cream on the side. It was a nice way to finish out an amazing meal with some wonderful people—several of whom are the greatest moms to ever walk the planet.

I don’t think bringing them cake was any way to repay all of the support they’ve given me over the years, but it was at least a start.

This piece first appeared in print on May 17, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Get ready to ‘berry’ your fork into blackberry cake

Blackberry cake is a beautiful summer dessert with fresh fruit that pairs really well with a bowl of ice cream.
Blackberry cake is a beautiful summer dessert with fresh fruit that pairs really well with a bowl of ice cream.

We were out grocery shopping recently, getting the essentials for the week, and Joey disappeared (as he often seems to do) while we were in the produce section and came back holding a pint of some of the biggest blackberries I’ve ever seen.

“These are on sale,” he said, knowing how to appeal to my weaknesses.

I quickly looked on my “Recipes to Try” Pinterest board on my phone and found a really simple cake that called for fresh berries, and we tossed two pints into the cart.

We also decided to add a pint of vanilla ice cream to our shopping list—just to make sure we had the perfect pairing for serving warm cake later that evening.

I found this recipe on the blog “Peanut Butter and Peppers.” You can see it at http://www.peanutbutterandpeppers.com/2014/07/20/blackberry-cake-sundaysupper/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

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Blackberry Cake

Blackberry cake is a beautiful summer dessert with fresh fruit that pairs really well with a bowl of ice cream.
Course Dessert
Keyword blackberries, cake, fresh fruit, vanilla

Ingredients

  • 2 pints fresh blackberries washed
  • 3/4 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup sugar
  • 8 tablespoons butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Grease a nine-inch spring form pan (line the bottom with parchment if you want to be able to transfer it to a plate. If you’re fine with just serving it from the metal bottom, don’t bother).
  • Combine the blackberries, lemon juice and tablespoon of sugar in a bowl and stir to coat the berries. Set it aside.
  • In another bowl, cream the butter and other 1/2 cup of sugar for a few minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
  • Beat in the flour, baking soda and salt until the mixture is just combined.
  • Pour the batter into the spring form pan and then evenly distribute the blackberries and any juices in the bowl over top of the batter.
  • Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
  • Cool for about 30 minutes before removing the cake from the pan. Let it cool completely if you’re planning on transferring it to a separate plate, or serve it warm otherwise.
  • Store in an airtight container.

The recipe’s author suggests letting the cake cool completely, wrapping it up, and letting it sit on the counter overnight. After eating it both warm and a day later, I can say that I don’t think the flavor changes any between day one or day two. Plus, who doesn’t like warm cake?

I also liked that this was super pretty with no effort on my part. And the flavor was spot on.

I asked Joey if he was happy with how his blackberry request turned out. He just smiled with slightly purple teeth.

I think I nailed it.

This piece first appeared in print on May 10, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Vintage recipe will be ‘raisin’ spirits in no time

War cake comes from the era of wartime rationing, when eggs, butter and milk were scarce, but it doesn’t skimp on flavor.
War cake comes from the era of wartime rationing, when eggs, butter and milk were scarce, but it doesn’t skimp on flavor.

Recently, I scrolled through Pinterest—as I often do—looking for recipes that I could try. A picture of a well-worn, yellowed piece of paper caught my eye. It was a handwritten recipe with the words “War Cake” written in a beautiful script across the top of the page.

I was intrigued by it and clicked on the link.

There, on a quilting website, I found a post from Marge Campbell of Littlefield, Texas, who recently used this recipe from her Aunt Almo Duncan Buren.

I’ve always loved history and especially the parts of historical events that don’t end up in textbooks.

War cake is one of those things. Recipes for cake during the World War I and II varied across different communities, but they had the same thing in common: they all use limited fats, limited milk and limited eggs, due to wartime shortages.

Much like depression-era cakes or desserts that people would make when times were rough, war cakes were something people could bake to help make life happier, despite having limited resources.

I read several articles on war cake. Many of the authors mentioned that not only was war cake something to be eaten at home in the States but something that was eaten on the front as well, when families would send care packages to their soldiers overseas.

Considering how dense and moist this cake was when I made it, I could see how it would easily survive the journey to Europe.

That being said, even with no tie to history, this cake is pretty darn good.

I did find it takes a deceivingly long time to make this than other types of cake you may have made before. That is because you make a raisin mixture to start off with that will need to be cooled before you can continue with the rest of the steps. For that reason, some people may have this recipe in their cookbooks as a boiled raisin cake, too.

If you want to see Campbell’s original post and the copy of her aunt’s recipe, you can go to https://www.quiltingboard.com/recipes-f8/war-cake-wwii-recipe-t169745.html. I doubled the spices when I made it and added a lot more raisins.

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War Cake

War cake comes from the era of wartime rationing, when eggs, butter and milk were scarce, but it doesn’t skimp on flavor.
Course Dessert
Keyword brown sugar, cake, cinnamon, raisins, ration recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 cups hot water
  • 2 tablespoons shortening or lard
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons cloves
  • 10 ounces seedless raisins
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 teaspoon hot water
  • 3 cups flour

Instructions

  • Begin by bringing the brown sugar, water, shortening, salt, cinnamon, cloves and raisins to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, let it continue to boil for about five minutes, stirring to make sure everything is well combined.
  • Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool completely before continuing to the next step.
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Add the dissolved baking soda and flour to the raisin mixture and stir until completely combined.
  • Divide the mixture evenly between two loaf pans, and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Once the cakes are cooled enough to handle, remove them from the pans and cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container.

I gave quite a bit of this cake away, and it got rave reviews. It’s a simple flavor profile, but I think that’s what makes it so good. It’s one of those desserts that just makes you feel satisfied.

It’s a good reminder that, even in hard times, people find ways to make life happy.

As I enjoyed my first piece of war cake, I imagined all of the different families around the United States who enjoyed the same recipe or ones like it while dealing with so much stress and worry in their lives.

It just goes to show that sometimes a good recipe can make us forget about our troubles for a while.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 8, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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