Monday, January 19, 2009

A Lowfat Quandry with Jello Cake

Hubby asked if I would make a jello cake for him to take to work tomorrow to go along with their Soup/Chili & Salad Potluck Lunch.  So this afternoon I decided to make it for him while I had the oven on for dinner. 

Anyway, the last few times I have made my jello cake it has seemed really oily and since my hubby has problems with high cholesterol I decided that I would try putting natural applesauce in the cake instead of veggie oil.  I have read of others using natural applesauce for an oil substitute in recipes so I thought why not!   

The recipe calls for 3/4 cup oil and that is how much natural applesauce I put in the cake. This is the only change I made to my tried & true recipe!  Once the cake was done, I turned it out the plate and this is the mess I ended up with!!     Basically part of the "crust" of the cake stayed in the pan while the rest of the cake was on the plate. The picture below shows my attempt at putting it back together. 

What could I have done differently??  Should I have added more applesauce to the mixture?  Did I make it too dry by using ALL applesauce for the oil?  I waited about 5 minutes before turning it out on the plate.   Is it not wise to use ALL applesauce for an oil substitute?  If not using applesauce for an oil substitute what else can I use to make things lower fat for hubby without taking away all of his sweets?

I decided to re-do the cake after the mess!  I had the ingredients on hand for another cake! So I did a "take two"  on the cake. This time I took my 3/4 cup measuring cup and filled it a little under 1/2 full with applesauce and the rest of the measuring cup was filled with veggie oil.   


Here is the end result!  The cake came out of the pan without one problem(well there is a little tear in it at the top of the pic but I think that is due to not a very well greased pan).  This one looks alot better!  It looks more like what the normal ones(as in following the recipe exactly) look like when I have done them in the past.  The second one, I will cut up for hubby to take with him to work!  I'll get the results of its taste and all when he comes home! 

If you are interested in the recipe...

Jello Cake

1 box yellow cake mix
1 3oz. pkg. DRY jello (I usually use a red, or orange or yellow)
3/4 cup water
4 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil

Beat first 4 ingredients together about 4 minutes. Add oil and beat one more minute. Grease lightly a bundt pan.Bake at 350° about 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Notes: I make the color of the cake to match either a holiday or season. Like for Valentine's Day, I make a red one. For Fall, I make an orange one. You can even drizzle a powdered sugar and water or orange juice glaze on the cake but personally I think that it makes the cake too sweet and it also makes to difficult to slice and freeze. However, having a slice with a scoop of ice cream makes a very nice treat!

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10 comments:

Ali said...

You are a very good wife! He's a lucky man.

Lisa@BlessedwithGrace said...

Isn't that interesting. Thanks for the recipe. I does sound tempting.

Stacy said...

Sounds good..I will have to try it and see how it goes.

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

I just love recipes like this!

Brenda said...

I like these recipes you can adapt for different holidays!

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet said...

Yum! This sounds delish! I love trying to make things healthier and turn out yummy, too!

Kristen said...

I think you ended up with a great oil to cake ratio. The 3/4 cup in the original recipe seems like too much. When you make a regular cake mix up, it doesn't take that much! It's a fun idea to match the seasons with the colors. I think my family would like it a lot.

akawest said...

That was so sweet of you to make him two cakes. I have had sticking in the pan issues, too.

Donna said...

I love how nothing keeps you down! You come right back swinging, uhh ..stirring! ;-)

SnoWhite said...

when i substitute applesauce for oil, i usually do a 3:1 ratio (applesauce to oil).