Here's the finished cake.
As you can see, the top is rather dark - excessively so, really. What happened was I checked the cake with a skewer, and it came out gunky (that's a technical term, by the way). So I put the cake back in the oven for a bit. I checked it again, and once again, the skewer was gunky. Back it goes. Repeat a few more times, and then the top of the cake was so dark that I didn't dare bake it any longer. So I took it out and delivered it with a warning that it might not be baked all the way through and might need zapping in the microwave. It was only after I tried a slice myself that I realised that it was probably just the cooked apple that was getting on the skewer. Doh!
Back to what really counts: the cake. It was actually rather good for a low-calorie cake. Because of the over-baking, the top was a bit hard and chewy, but not excessively so and I'd say not unpleasantly so either. The texture was reminiscent of Christmas cake, and quite flavourful too. The apple worked really well, as did the walnut, which provided some much-needed texture. Sweetness was about right I think, and the Splenda® worked really well. I think you could reasonably replace all of the honey with Splenda (with a bit of water to compensate for the lost moisture) and even possibly replace some of the raisins with it too if you wanted to eke out a few more calories. For an ultra-low calorie cake, losing the walnuts would be the next logical step, though I think the cake would lose quite a bit through this. Perhaps replacing the walnuts with sunflower seeds instead might be an option, but I'm not sure. But overall, I'd say it was quite a success!
As you can see, the top is rather dark - excessively so, really. What happened was I checked the cake with a skewer, and it came out gunky (that's a technical term, by the way). So I put the cake back in the oven for a bit. I checked it again, and once again, the skewer was gunky. Back it goes. Repeat a few more times, and then the top of the cake was so dark that I didn't dare bake it any longer. So I took it out and delivered it with a warning that it might not be baked all the way through and might need zapping in the microwave. It was only after I tried a slice myself that I realised that it was probably just the cooked apple that was getting on the skewer. Doh!
Back to what really counts: the cake. It was actually rather good for a low-calorie cake. Because of the over-baking, the top was a bit hard and chewy, but not excessively so and I'd say not unpleasantly so either. The texture was reminiscent of Christmas cake, and quite flavourful too. The apple worked really well, as did the walnut, which provided some much-needed texture. Sweetness was about right I think, and the Splenda® worked really well. I think you could reasonably replace all of the honey with Splenda (with a bit of water to compensate for the lost moisture) and even possibly replace some of the raisins with it too if you wanted to eke out a few more calories. For an ultra-low calorie cake, losing the walnuts would be the next logical step, though I think the cake would lose quite a bit through this. Perhaps replacing the walnuts with sunflower seeds instead might be an option, but I'm not sure. But overall, I'd say it was quite a success!
It looks pretty good - a bit like a moist fruit cake like you said. How about whipping the egg whites for more lightness - I assume it's not going to add many more calories and it might puff it up making it feel less low-cal.
ReplyDeleteI think if you want to shave off more calories, the splenda replacement of honey sounds like a good idea, and maybe replacing the walnuts with a more low-cal option as you say. Taking out the raisins seems one step too far though. I assume they plumped up on boiling in the water, which would really add a lot to the texture and so you're adding significantly more than 100 g of rehydrated fruit.