What happened on New Year’s eve?
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I:
- Watched 3 hours of Lizzie McGuire while waiting for Show Luo to magically appear on my television screen. Yes, I’m on a ‘Lizzie McGuire’ streak right now. Season 2 already, by the way.
- Watched a giant beetle crawl over the television screen but couldn’t pick up enough courage to grab the only heavy object in the discinity– my newly bought book– to kill that creepy thing.
- Shook my dad continuously for 5 minutes until my arms felt like they’d break off so that he could probably kill the creepy thing. (I ain’t the only one afraid of being in close proximity to a living organism with a gross hard exoskeleton)
Note: did not work. Should try pouring water over him. But that would mean I have to clean up the mess. Maybe I should try my uncles’ method i.e. pour salt into his mouth. Not a good idea either. Dad has high blood pressure among other things. Got it! Chilli. He’ll kill me, which would be illegal so he probably wouldn’t…
- Drank 3 cups of lemonade and 3 cups of barley water.
- Wondered if I’m gonna die the next day. You know, 2012? Maybe not. I’m still alive.
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I decided to make my first pound cake today.
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It was yummy.
Take a look.
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What you need to look out for especially in this recipe is my perfected Dairy-Free, low fat, low sugar buttercream that’s pretty darn delicious thanks to a magical ingredient called PEANUT FLOUR! So its basically a peanut butter chocolate buttercream. That holds its shape!
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Marbled Pound Cake with Perfected Mock ‘Buttercream’
No. of servings: 10
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Ingredients
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- 1 1/2 cups/ 171 grams cake flour
- 1/2 cup/ 70 grams whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder
- 1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp water
- 1/3 cup/ 60 grams sugar
- 2/3 cup/ 140 grams sugar
- 1 whole egg + 1 egg white, stirred (vegan: 1 cup minus 1 1/2 tbsp silken tofu puree)
- 5 Tablespoons/ 45 grams low fat spread (note: this is vegan)
- 1 cup nonfat yogurt (vegan: 1/2 tsp lemon juice + enough soy milk to make 1/2 cup)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp/ 1.5 oz fat free or low fat cream cheese (vegan: use tofutti OR more low fat spread)
- 1/4 cup low fat spread
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup/27 g powdered sugar
- 2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup peanut flour
- 2 tbsp cake flour
Directions
Note that a hand mixer can be used in place of the stand mixer for this recipe.
For cake:
Have all ingredients at room temp. Preheat oven to 180ºC /35oºF with rack in the lower third of the oven. Spray 8-10 cup tube pan with cooking spray.
Bowl 1: Use a whisk to combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift together. Note: because whole wheat flour is used, there are some bran flakes left in the sift. Don’t worry. Just dump them into the sifted mixture and mix well. Set aside.
Bowl 2: In a small bowl combine the espresso powder, cocoa and 1/3 cup of the sugar with 3 tbsp of water. Whisk until smooth. Set aside.
Bowl 3: In another small bowl, whisk whole egg with egg white. Set aside. (skip for vegan version just measure out tofu in a bowl)
Mixing bowl: Cut the butter into pieces and place in an electric mixing bowl. Beat for 1 minute to soften. Gradually add remaining 2/3 cup of sugar and beat at high speed for about 3 minutes.Dribble eggs (vegan: pureed tofu) in slowly, about 1 T at a time, beating constantly for about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in a third of the flour mixture. On medium-high speed, beat in half of the yogurt (vegan: soured soy milk). On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour. On high speed, beat in the rest of the yogurt (vegan: soured soy milk) and the vanilla. On low speed, beat in the remaining flour.
Bowl 5: Measure out 1 1/2 cups of yogurt batter (vegan: soured soy milk) and mix into the cocoa mixture. Set aside.
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Use a large spoon to fill the bottom of the pan with about three quarters of the white batter placed in dollops. Cover the white batter with dollops of chocolate batter. Top the chocolate batter with small dollops of white batter spaced so that the chocolate batter shows through. Use a table knife to marble the batters together with a circular or zigzag motion; be careful not to blend them too much. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.
Cool for 10-15 minutes on a rack. Unmold the cake. Cool completely before serving or storing.
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For mock buttercream:
Sift dry ingredients together. Whip cream cheese and low fat spread until evenly mixed. Add in dry ingredients and all remaining ingredients and mix till a thick ‘buttercream’ is formed. If mixture is still not thick enough, add a tbsp of cake flour at a time.
This versatile frosting can be used to frost shapes like roses and stuff 😀
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Assembly:
Slice the cake into half. Spread filling on bottom layer and cover with top layer. Frost cake as you wish.
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I love looking at the bottom of the pound cake– to me, its what makes the pound cake.
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It doesn’t exactly fall into the category of low calorie desserts. But it is a reduced calorie food. So go ahead and have 2 pieces. Or more.
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Love ya! Enjoy your first few days of 2012. Or if you believe so, the beginning of the last days… please don’t freak out now.
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a dessert diet 
this looks so good! i am so going to make this!!
btw, i am heading to taiwan later this evening! yay!
Wow! Have fun! Make sure you eat all the good food! 😀
You are trying to con me, this is not by any mean a reduced fat food, no way xD
Definitely reduced fat, but not low calorie! 😉