Weekend Cookbook Challenge--Marita Deleon’s Low-Fat Carrot Cake

Marita Deleon’s Low-Fat Carrot Cake
Cooking With The Young and the Restless Copyright 1997

1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
½ cup pineapple juice
½ cup light molasses
2 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups grated carrots
1 cup flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
Dusting of confectioners’ sugar

In a large mixing bowl stir together, pineapple, pineapple juice, molasses, egg whites, and vanilla. In another mixing bowl combine flours, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Quickly stir dry ingredients into wet ones. Pour into a 13x9-inch pan sprayed with vegetable oil. Bake at 375 degrees until a cake tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. (Use some discretion here - I cooked mine at 350 for about 25 minutes). When cool, dust with confectioners’ sugar. I used frosting.

Low-Fat Cream Cheese Frosting
Splenda No Calorie Sweetener Copyright 2004

½ cup light butter, softened
1 cup Splenda Granular
1 pound nonfat cream cheese, softened I used low-fat
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat softened butter and Splenda briefly in medium bowl until Splenda is just incorporated. Add cream cheese, tablespoon by tablespoon. Mix until lump free, 1 to 2 minutes, Scrape sides of bowl and add vanilla extract. Mix well.

Make about 2 cups. Per serving (2T with nonfat cream cheese): 60 cal, 3g fat, 10mg chol, 190 mg sodium, 3 g carbs, 3g protein
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The theme for the next Weekend Cookbook Challenge is TV Cooks - 'Find a recipe from a cooking show from the food channel, PBS, or your local area. Or pick a recipe from a cookbook you've bought off TV! Of cook something from a non-cooking TV show cookbook (does that even make sense?) ie The Sopranos.'

I immediately thought of this recipe that I had bookmarked some time ago. It's from Cooking with the Young and the Restless. I watched that soap opera at one point in my life but I'm not intimately familiar with the characters circa 1997 when this cookbook was published. I've never watched the Sopranos either but I enjoy those cookbooks too.

It wasn't until I was actually making this cake that I realized that it had no outright fat in it - no butter, no oil, not even any traditional fat replacers like yogurt or applesauce. I hesitated but I was already committed. I was a bit confused about the pineapple. I bought an 8-ounce can and used that undrained with a bit of orange juice added since I had no pineapple juice and there didn't seem to be 1/2 cup of pineapple juice in the can with the crushed pineapple. If you need 8 ounces of already drained pineapple, you'll have to start with the 20 oz can. My cake was thin and required much less baking than the recipe called for but turned out great otherwise so I'm not sure if I was right or wrong.

This was a thin cake. It had a fudge brownie consistency. I liked the molasses flavor but I think this might be a great recipe to substitute agave nectar in. That might be an experiment I have to try later down the line.

Blast From The Past: Martha Turner’s Carrot Cake from August 2007. Unfortunately there was no nutritional information included for today's cake but it's obviously better (nutritionally) than that cake which had 2 cups of sugar and 1 1/2 cups of oil. Yes, that cake was much better tasting but you couldn't eat it everyday and live a long and healthy life.

Question of the Day: Do you like carrot cake?