A little explanation behind the name for this cake-

This cake is not sugar free. For a cake to be completely sugar free, it would have to be made without sweeteners of any sort. No lactose, no sucrose, no fructose. No plain white table sugar, no brown sugar. No maple syrup, no fruit.

I did not make a sugar free cake. I made a cake which is  free of  “added” sugar… well, except for the generous sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar on top. But when choosing between a syrup (made with a 1/2 cup of sugar) a frosting (with it’s 3 cups of sugar) or just sprinkling s small amount (less than a 1/4 cup) of sugar directly on top.. well.. I like to think I made the better choice.

So this cake is *not quite* sugar free.

Now for the cake explaination. How can you make a cake that is free of  “added” sugar? Easy.
Use fruit and fruit juices to sweeten the cake.

So I guess if anything, this cake is a *not quite* sugar free- Fruit cake.

But it’s delicious.

Infact, This cake has so muchneverbashfulwithbutter.comhttp://www.neverbashfulwithbutter.com fruit in it that I didn’t even have to add any flavouring extracts. I barely added any extra fat to the mix, because there is coconut and applesauce in the batter, and everyone knows that coconut is FULL of oil and fat (albeit natural) and applesauce is a great replacement for added oil.

All in all, this recipe has-

Applesauce, pineapple, peaches, cherries (ok, so I used marachino cherries, but I used natural ones) lemon zest, coconut, and banana puree.  Pretty tropical huh?

I’ll divulge the recipe on my recipe blog, but lets just say, other than that there is a little butter, a few eggs, some levening products and just enough flour to call it a cake.

It’s much more dense than a typical cake, and I have no doubt that it would make some pretty tasty cupcakes as well, but I decided I wanted to make something that looked a little different than the typical things I make, so here goes-

If you’re looking for a light and fluffy cake, this is not what you’re looking for. However, if you’re looking for something you can eat an entire slice of an not feel so bad about? This is the cake for you.

As you can see, it’s got a very tight, dense structure and texture. It isn’t as chewy as you might think, though the texture is mostly made up of coconut and pineapple fibers. Its a very tropical cake, and I really enjoyed it’s flavour.

So as far as this being sugar free, It’s not. But it is made of natural fruit sugar, and the sugar on top just makes it look pretty. It is in no way necessary for sweetness. I promise!

So here’s the recipe-

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups pureed pineapple (from the can or fresh, be sure to include the juice)
1/2 applesauce
1 can of peaches (in their own juice, not syrup) drained and pureed
1/4 cup chopped natural marachino cherries (or you can use regular cherries, just make sure they’re pitted and chopped)
1/2 cup banana puree
3 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut
1 teaspoon lemon zest

The mixing instructions are real easy. Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and coconut in one bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the melted butter and the eggs. Add to this mixture the fruit and lemon zest.

Now alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the fruit mixture until throughly blended. I would actually recommend doing this with a stand mixer or a hand mixer, but if you use a hand whisk, be sure to whisk hard and long enough that the entire mixture is blended.

You should have a pretty thin batter. If it is *too* thin, add a little flour to the mixture. I wouldn’t worry though, unless it’s thinner than pancake batter.

Pour either into cupcake cups or two 8″ round cake pans, and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. Because there isn’t refined sugar in the mix, the tops of the cake won’t brown very easily. Just be sure to check after about 15 minutes with a toothpick, and if it comes out clean, they’re done!

Let cool and enjoy while slightly warm, or completely refridgerated. My husband enjoyed his with some whipped cream. I liked mine with just the sprinkle of powdered sugar.

-A.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 1st, 2008 at 1:34 am and is filed under April 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.