All-New Cake Mix Doctor - Anne Byrn [6]
Through the years I have come up with ways to slim down my cakes without sacrificing flavor. I buy reduced-fat sour cream and reduced-fat cream cheese almost all the time. The exception is when making cream cheese frostings, where whole-fat cream cheese is less watery and makes a nicer and creamier frosting. I cut back on oil and up the liquid in a cake whenever possible. Say a cake recipe calls for one cup of oil and a half cup of milk. I would change that recipe right off the bat to a half cup of oil and one cup of skim milk. I often add pumpkin and mashed bananas and applesauce to cakes. And when our family needs a lighter dessert, I’ll bake a Bundt cake and simply dust it with confectioners’ sugar instead of frosting it.
These little changes allow me to bake, eat, and enjoy cake. I think it’s important that my children see me savoring dessert and having a healthy relationship with it, too.
Eggs: To keep things simple I use only large eggs. And to make things even simpler I add these eggs straight from the refrigerator. The beauty of my recipes is that eggs do not need to be at room temperature as they must be when making cakes from scratch. Egg substitutes work well in all my recipes where eggs are needed. Consult the egg substitute package for how much to use for each egg called for in the recipe.
Butter: Lightly salted butter is still my favorite choice for frostings because that bit of salt plays nicely with the sugar and creates a frosting that seems less sweet. However, if I am using butter in a cake recipe, I now prefer unsalted. And I’ll tell you why. Mostly I suggest adding butter to cake mixes when making bars, brownies, and cookies. When I used salted butter, they started tasting too salty to me. When I made them with unsalted butter, they were better, with more of a from-scratch taste. I still veto margarine. Sorry, just don’t like the flavor. It’s either butter or vegetable oil for me.
Vegetable oil: An indispensable ingredient in my recipes, vegetable oil makes a cake moist and tender. It partners well with chocolate, letting the flavor come through and making the cake seem more chocolaty. I prefer light oils, such as canola or soybean.
Milk: In my first book I was adamant about using whole milk in frostings and many cake recipes because of the added richness. But in reality you are not going to run out and buy milk specifically for a recipe, and I know that. You want to use the milk that’s in the refrigerator! So, now if a recipe calls for milk almost 99 percent of time I just say milk. The only exception is in caramel frosting, which really is better if you make it with whole milk. Feel free to add the milk cold, straight from the fridge.
Chocolate: I have a kitchen drawer dedicated to chocolate—chips, chocolate bars, and cocoa powder. They all have a place in my recipes. And having them on hand makes me a happier and more creative cook. For chocolate chips, I prefer regular-size chips for frostings, bars, and cookies. I like miniature chips for folding into layer and Bundt cakes because they don’t sink to the bottom when baking. Bar chocolate—be it bittersweet, semisweet, white, or German’s—is handy to chop and fold into batters, turn into a frosting, or scrape into curls or shavings to decorate the top of a cake. And cocoa powder adds a little depth to an already chocolate cake batter or forms the foundation for a decadent frosting. I buy both regular and Dutch-process cocoas. The former is more ruddy brown in color and has that mild cocoa flavor most people are accustomed to whereas Dutch process has a deeper flavor and a darker color. Add a little Dutch-process cocoa and it will turn some frostings a grayish brown. Add a lot and it will make them really dark brown. Experiment with each and suit yourself. Yum!
Extracts: Vanilla, almond, lemon, orange, and peppermint are bottled as pure extracts. Maple, coconut, and rum come in the form of synthesized flavorings. I love to add all of these to cakes and frostings. I use so much