Another Chocolate Cake?

Since updating my recipes I have been dying to try my idea for a Cinnamon Mint Chocolate cake, so today I indulged.

This cake measure slightly over 4 inches in height

What changes did I make to the original?

Bake 345 degrees for approx 30-35 minutes.
Prepare 8 inch by 2 inch high round pans with liner(parchment or wax paper.    Do not grease sides. Moisten and fold towel strips. Stretch strip around pan and pin. Set aside.

By the way,  this recipe with make two nice 9 inch layers as well.

Cake
Dry ingredients-
9 tablespoons pure cocoa powder (9)
2 cups of oat flour (Arrowhead flour = 108)
4 tsps baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp Guar Gum
1 tsp salt
2 teaspoon of Cinnamon

1/3 cup of dry milk powder

2 cups – Splenda ( measured then pulsed to fine powder)
6 large eggs
½ cup Bestfoods Mayonaise (0)
½ cup oil(0)
4 tablespoons Sugar Free Maple Syrup (0)

1 1/3 cup  DaVince SF  Mint Patty Syrup
½ tsp vanilla

How to’s-  the cake

Turn on your oven!

Beat eggs, Splenda, syrups, mayo, oil, and powdered milk together for about 1 min.  Set aside.

Sift and measure your flour.  Return measured flour to sifter and add in other dry ingredients.  Sift again.  Place in mixing bowl.

Prepare pans ( don’t forget the towel trick)

Lastly-  make well in center of dry ingredients, pour in liquids, beat no more than one minute.

Pour equal amounts of batter in each pan and bake.

Frosting

2 cups of heavy whipped cream

1 or 2 tbsp of SF vanilla pudding mix ( I use 1 tbsp)

1 tsp of mint flavoring ( or more, depending on how minty you want your frosting)

1/2 -2/3 cup of Splenda ( measured, then pulsed to fine powder)

How to’s- the frosting

Pour about 1/2 to 2/3 cup of your cream into mixing bowl.  Add in other ingredients and stir with a spoon or spatula to blend.   Beat  on high speed until mixture begins to feel heavy.  This will be a true “butter cream.”

Enjoy!

PS – Here is a tutorial for making your own baking pan jackets.

Baking Pan Jackets

 

 

J

 

The Perfect Layer

As you know, as one who is always striving for perfection, I tried the alterations mentioned in the last post when making my Cinnamon Chocolate cake.  I have updated the changes in my e-book (just click on the tab above) so you can try it too.

The cake layer you see in the picture is in a 8 by 2 inch round pan.  I used wax paper in the bottom, and surrounded the pan with my towel on the sides, baking it at 345 degrees for 30 minutes.   I also mix the Splenda in with the liquid ingredients to further insure that it was dissolved.  You can see that the cake  raised beautifully, and there is no mountain in the middle.  I seriously don’t think that I can do any better than this.  At least for me, it is time to stop dink’n around.

The depth of the layers are about 1 1/2 inches, making a perfectly acceptable cake for a great presentation.  Look’s is everything, you know!  🙂

I hope you with try the recipe.

Both cakes, the yellow (pineapple version) and the chocolate have gotten rave reviews from my family.  No one can believe that they are low carb.

By the way, I think I will add a bit of cinnamon to my chocolate whipped cream frosting when I put it together this afternoon.

Happy Baking!

I added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the whipped cream frosting, and sprinkled a bit more on the top.  Yum…….!

This recipe would work just fine in 9 inch pans, although it would be slightly less in thickness- but it’s the taste that counts.

I also think that next time I might try adding some mint extract in the cake and icing, as chocolate and mint go so…. good together.

J

Pineapple Cake Update

As always I am constantly striving to improve my baking skills, so I tried a couple of things using  half of this recipe.  The minor ingredient amount changes  are in my recipe book page on this website.

The biggest discovery and great results came as I tried baking my single layer, surrounded by a towel strip that I pinned around the sides of the pan.  Not only did it eliminate the cracking, but also took care of the bulging in the middle.

The crumb of the cake was excellent, it was moist, and  baked evenly throughout.

I also baked this cake at 340.  Next time I will up it to 345 and see if it makes a difference.  I will let you know.

Below is the website that explains it a bit better.  Take the time to look it up.  It really works.

Baking an even cake!

Happy baking!

J

Baking Tips for Sugar Free Cakes

This will be a short post, but I needed to pass these tips along while their are still lodged in my aging brain.

1)  I find that if you measure your Splenda, then place it in a processor to grind it finer, it dissolves in your recipes better, and will lessen the chances of your cakes cracking on the surface.

2)  No matter what tweaks that have been tried, using sugar substitutes affects the rise of the end product.  I have tried the various suggestions from the company, but I still notices that my cakes don’t rise the same as when I use real sugar.  Oh well!

The question is then, does it taste great?  Yes!!!!

So….. what we are really talking about here is a visual thing.  When I give someone a piece of cake, I often am told, “Why, it’s simply delicious, but, it isn’t very high.”

Of course, right away my ego is deflated, and in my mind I am assuring myself that I’ll never share my cake with that person again! So there!!!   Then I began to ponder the “real” problem.

The answer-Just make the 9 inch recipe, and bake it in a 8 inch pan.  The only difference is that you will bake it longer-30-35 minutes.

Now, just let them give me that look, when my layers are 1 1/2 inches high.   What they don’t know, won’t hurt’m.  Problem solved.

Here is the cinnamon chocolate cake  using the 9 inch pan recipe, baked in  8 inch pans.   These layers are 1 1/2 inches plus.  I adjusted the sugar on this cake to 2 cups, and also increased the cinnamon to 2 tsp.  Those option are included in the e-book.  I had to bake this about 35 minutes.  It turned out great.  This has become my mother’s favorite cake.   She can’t believe that it is sugar free.

3)  Because I try to use Arrowhead Oat flour in all my cake recipes, it will always have a slightly beige color unless I am working with a recipe that adds cocoa.  So,  to fool the masses, I just add a bit of yellow food coloring to the batter  and tell them it is a yellow cake.

I will share my lemon cake recipe soon, and update the cookbook using this method.

🙂

J

J’s Moist Sponge Cake

I have been working on a recipe for a moist sugar free sponge cake, and I think I finally have it.  Sticking with the Mayonaise idea I share with you in making my Chocolate Cinnamon cake, I blended it with some melted butter and infused it into a simple sponge cake recipe.

Next, I added a sugar free citrus flavor to my whipped cream frosting, and got the fork out.  Yummmmm!!!

My husband just loved it.

Another reason that this is a winner, is that it can be flavored with whatever you wish- lemon, orange, vanilla etc, using zest or extract. You can also add a packet of the Citrus- on the go to your dry ingredients.

The carb count for this creation works out to 6 carbs per serving, or 1/12th of the cake-that includes the frosting.

* One thing that I did for this cake was to grind my Splenda in the processor before measuring it.  It seems to dissolve better with this method.

As for the assembly method, use what ever works best for you to get the most volume from your eggs.  I more or less use the foam cake process here, but you could separate your eggs and follow the American sponge cake method.

As you can see I served it with slightly thickened Manderine orange slices on the side.  I have included how I fixed them in the recipe.

Enjoy!!

J’s Moist Sponge Cake with Citrus Frosting

J’s Low Carb Recipe e-book