I made a lovely cake this afternoon. The original basis came from a recipe from a book called "Low-Carb Vegetarian" by Celia Brooks Brown (ISBN: 1-86205-676-5) which i borrowed from the local library. The recipe is on page 120 and the whole book is pretty good, i really recommend it.



The original recipe goes as follows:

75g/3oz soy flour
50g/2oz ground almonds
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp cardamom seeds, out of the pod, crushed
5 tbsp of sweetner (i used splenda)
2 eggs
3 tbsp half-fat creme fraiche or sour cream (i used tesco's healthy living creme fraiche)
3 tbsp sunflower oil (i used veg oil, which was fine)
1 tbsp vanilla essence
pinch salt

1) preheat the oven to 180*C/Gas mark 4. Grease a 20 cm/8 inch cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. (I didn't have baking parchment: i used a spring form cake tin and blasted the hell out of it with cooking oil spray stuff. it worked.)

2) stir together flour, almonds, baking powder and cardamom seeds in a small bowl.

3) in a seperate bowl, beat together the sweetner, eggs, creme fraiche/sour cream, oil, vanilla essence and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, combine thoroughly, but don't overdo it. you'll get a pretty firm mix, not like a traditional sloppy cake mix. spoon into the prepared tin and smooth out the top (it won't self level like regular cakes do!).

4) bake for 20 mins till golden and set. rest for 5 mins, then turn onto a wire rack to cool.

serves 8 - per serving: carbs: 3g, protein: 7.5g, calories: 140, fibre: 5g, fat: 11g (sat fat: 1.8g)

i had one piece that stuck to the tin and i nibbled that bit, as a taste test, and thought it was a little dry, on its own. so i decided to make a topping for the cake - it's not a deep cake, you could, i suppose, do 2 cakes and put them together a-la victoria sponge style, with some kind of squidgy middle, and that would work well for an extra special treat. but for the topping, i amended a cream cheese topping i used once on a sugar free (but not carb free) carrot cake recipe from canderel (i made it, ironically enough, for a teenage diabetic girl who was having her first birthday since diagnosis, she was driving her mom up the wall with food and i offered to make her a sugar free birthday cake. Well.. it was sugar free.. although i know better now!).

the original cream cheese topping goes like this:

200g low fat cream cheese, 30g softened butter, 7ml orange juice, 10g granular canderel, 1 orange, zest of, cinnamon, sieved for dusting -

beat together softened butter, canderel, orange juice and orange zest. Stir in the cream cheese till blended, do not overbeat or the icing will be watery. When the cake is cool, spread the icing over the top using a pallet knife dipped in hot water. To finish, lightly dust the cake with cinnamon.

Now, i didn't have an orange, so had to think of something else (and not enough cream cheese!), so i adapted the recipe as follows:

100g full fat philadelphia cheese, 100g creme fraiche, 30g softened butter, 7ml vanilla essence, 10g splenda, 2 tsp cocoa powder and diabetic chocolate (from thorntons)

i made it up as the previous recipe, substituting the vanilla essence for the orange juice, and omitting the orange zest. I mixed in the cocoa powder once i'd mixed in the cream cheese. I then grated the diabetic chocolate over the top of the entire cake once i'd put all the cream cheese icing on the cake.



this amended icing worked well with the cake, stops it from being too dry, and is low-carb. the original would work well too though, or you could do a lemon version, as citrus flavours go well with cardamom, and the cake is quite strongly cardamom flavoured. but i like the chocolate version - it feels like a real treat.

very very yummy!!

keth
xx

Keth that looks scrummy!  I love cardamom flavour.

Incidentally I noted you used diabetic chocolate, I never bother, the high cocoa solid plain chocolate is relatively low carb and can be tolerated by most.  Every time I think of diabetic choc I think "laxative"  LOL!  Hubby bought me some a year last Xmas and I said "Why have you bought me a bag of laxatives?"  He decided if I didn't want them he'd have them... and he found out!  LOL!

Nice to see you back BTW, wondered where you'd gone.

Quoted from Pattidevans

Keth that looks scrummy!  I love cardamom flavour.

Thanks!!! It is - but it went "off" disappointingly quickly - i guess i never realised how much of a preservative sugar is. With only 2 of us here to eat it we only got to eat half ourselves. Next time i make this i think i'll freeze half, although i have no idea how well it'll freeze...

Quoted from Pattidevans

Incidentally I noted you used diabetic chocolate, I never bother, the high cocoa solid plain chocolate is relatively low carb and can be tolerated by most.  Every time I think of diabetic choc I think "laxative"  LOL!  Hubby bought me some a year last Xmas and I said "Why have you bought me a bag of laxatives?"  He decided if I didn't want them he'd have them... and he found out!  LOL!

i wanted some chocolate "treats" to have - i'll happily use high cocoa solid plain for cooking with, but when i want chocolate to suck on or as a treat, the way i used to, then i'll turn to the diabetic stuff. The laxative side effect is good.. trust me.. its good - it stops me scoffing the entire lot in one go! i bought the bar just to see how it tasted, and it stacks up pretty well against normal chocolate. [let me just say that after buying it, i couldn't resist, and snapped a piece off at the bus stop to suck on there and then. People must've thought i was being really wierd, cos after 4 weeks without chocolate, the moan i let out in pure pleasure must have sounded... well.. a bit... you know!!! ] i've a box of assorted chocs (thorntons) in the fridge, which i haven't tried yet, still working my way through the bag of mint truffles - i think this is the longest chocolate has *ever* lasted, since i'm rationing myself to one a day.... I've also bought (since i have a huge sweet tooth) some sugar free sucky sweets from boots. those aren't bad either, for when i have the occasional sweet attack.

Quoted from Pattidevans

Nice to see you back BTW, wondered where you'd gone.

oh, still around. just some days i get more time than others.

keth
xx

It should freeze OK Keth.  I've frozen both the choccie cake I make and the Buttery Almond and Coconut cake and they've come out terrific and both were of a similar low carb consistency.  It's actually quite good to freeze it in slices so you only take one out at a time.

LOL@ the chocs.... I've got more of a savoury than sweet tooth, so I guess I'm lucky at not having cravings.  Having said that, I counted seven boxes of chocolates and 2 bars on the larder shelf last night.  Leftovers from Xmas.

Quoted from Pattidevans

It should freeze OK Keth.  I've frozen both the choccie cake I make and the Buttery Almond and Coconut cake and they've come out terrific and both were of a similar low carb consistency.  It's actually quite good to freeze it in slices so you only take one out at a time.

you know, that's a brilliant idea. freeze in slices i mean. why didn't i think of that? (buttery almond and coconut cake? is it in the recipe section?)

Quoted from Pattidevans

Having said that, I counted seven boxes of chocolates and 2 bars on the larder shelf last night.  Leftovers from Xmas.

*groans*.. oh my god.. how can you stand it? you really don't have a sweet tooth.. i made damn sure i got rid of all our chocolate before 4th Jan (when i started doing this - i ignored my diabetes over xmas, except for taking meds. god knows what i'm gonna do next xmas. thorntons. or i'll be used to it, i guess. or something). i really couldn't do this if i knew there was 7 boxes of chocolate in the house...

keth
xx

http://www.diabetes-support.org.uk/forum/Blah.pl?b-805/m-1216926471/It's become one of my "standards" = serve it with blueberries cooked with a tsp or two of Splenda warmed in a pan and a splash of water or wine for a sauce... or you can do raspberries - delicious a bit warm!

Keth, your tastes change over time and you won't crave the sweets

I dont miss sweet stuff most of the time now. I do have dessert on special occasions but I find I actually enjoy it now whereas before it was expected and was just something else I ate.