Are you sugared out from the holidays?
I totally am! I managed to avoid some of my usual indulgences when we were away this year, like fudge and cookies (usually when I travel I manage to convince myself that the calories, saturated fat and white flour in the giant cookies from Starbucks don't count when eaten in an airport), but I caved around chocolate. I ate way, way too much chocolate. Not just when we were away either, after our new year's party there was tons of chocolate treats left over, which I have been happily helping to get rid of (first in my belly, but now that I've hit overload, I'm giving it away) - I guess our guests were sugared out too, because while they nibbled on the sweets, they completely devoured all the savouries! But I am not feeing guilty - dark chocolate covered nuts and fruit has some sound nutritional value, at least moreso than fudge and Starbucks cookies, right??
Oh well, in case you didn't get your fill, here's another decadent treat. Nothing like following up a healthy recipe with a not-so-healthy recipe. But hey, if you make a nutritious, low-cal meal using shirataki noodles, there's more room for cake!
There is a reason pound cake is called pound cake - originally it was made with a pound of butter, sugar, flour, etc.
I opted to use regular sugar here, not so much for the sweetness, since that can be replaced, but for the moistness and lightness it lends to baked goods. I did cut back the fat by using half butter and half apple sauce, and I used spelt flour instead of white. If you like citrus, you will love this, the flavour is so intense and it is so moist and yummy.
This is one of those things I gotta share, because if it sits around our house, I'm likely to eat it all myself (Adam isn't a huge citrus fan and the girls can only eat so much cake...so it would be up to me to make sure it doesn't go bad (ha ha)...of course it can easily be frozen but I probably wouldn't have the will power to do that). So this is one treat that will have to be brought out of the house to share with others.
3 lemons, washed, sliced and seeds and stems, etc. removed
4 limes, washed and sliced
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Put lemon and lime slices in food processor and process until very finely chopped/pureed. Add butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla and process well. Add dry ingredients to food processor and pulse a few times, just until flour is incorporated. Scrape batter into a greased bundt pan and bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Check after about 40 minutes, and if top is browning too much, loosely tent top with foil for the remainder of the baking time. Let cool about 15 minutes before removing from pan. Run knife along edges first, before inverting on to a wire rack.
Citrus Glaze
2 cups icing sugar
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Mix together sugar, zest and juice. Add a bit of water if you need to thin out to make a pourable glaze. Pour glaze over the top of cooled bundt cake and let it drip down the sides. Freeze any leftovers (if there are any!) after 3-4 days.
I totally am! I managed to avoid some of my usual indulgences when we were away this year, like fudge and cookies (usually when I travel I manage to convince myself that the calories, saturated fat and white flour in the giant cookies from Starbucks don't count when eaten in an airport), but I caved around chocolate. I ate way, way too much chocolate. Not just when we were away either, after our new year's party there was tons of chocolate treats left over, which I have been happily helping to get rid of (first in my belly, but now that I've hit overload, I'm giving it away) - I guess our guests were sugared out too, because while they nibbled on the sweets, they completely devoured all the savouries! But I am not feeing guilty - dark chocolate covered nuts and fruit has some sound nutritional value, at least moreso than fudge and Starbucks cookies, right??
Oh well, in case you didn't get your fill, here's another decadent treat. Nothing like following up a healthy recipe with a not-so-healthy recipe. But hey, if you make a nutritious, low-cal meal using shirataki noodles, there's more room for cake!
There is a reason pound cake is called pound cake - originally it was made with a pound of butter, sugar, flour, etc.
I opted to use regular sugar here, not so much for the sweetness, since that can be replaced, but for the moistness and lightness it lends to baked goods. I did cut back the fat by using half butter and half apple sauce, and I used spelt flour instead of white. If you like citrus, you will love this, the flavour is so intense and it is so moist and yummy.
This is one of those things I gotta share, because if it sits around our house, I'm likely to eat it all myself (Adam isn't a huge citrus fan and the girls can only eat so much cake...so it would be up to me to make sure it doesn't go bad (ha ha)...of course it can easily be frozen but I probably wouldn't have the will power to do that). So this is one treat that will have to be brought out of the house to share with others.
3 lemons, washed, sliced and seeds and stems, etc. removed
4 limes, washed and sliced
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup apple sauce
2 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Put lemon and lime slices in food processor and process until very finely chopped/pureed. Add butter, eggs, sugar and vanilla and process well. Add dry ingredients to food processor and pulse a few times, just until flour is incorporated. Scrape batter into a greased bundt pan and bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Check after about 40 minutes, and if top is browning too much, loosely tent top with foil for the remainder of the baking time. Let cool about 15 minutes before removing from pan. Run knife along edges first, before inverting on to a wire rack.
Citrus Glaze
2 cups icing sugar
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
Mix together sugar, zest and juice. Add a bit of water if you need to thin out to make a pourable glaze. Pour glaze over the top of cooled bundt cake and let it drip down the sides. Freeze any leftovers (if there are any!) after 3-4 days.
Do you leave the lemon and lime peels on?
ReplyDeleteYes, believe it or not, you throw the WHOLE fruits in (sans seeds, etc. of course). So ideally use organic fruits that have been washed well.
ReplyDeleteCake is one of my favorite dish,this recipe is quite different and good i m definitely going to try this cake.Thanks a lot of this post
ReplyDelete