Altering cakes to reduce fat

I am really watching my fat intake and want to know how I can alter some of my normal cake recipes to reduce the amount of fat in them. I have heard you can substitute some of the butter for apple puree. Does this work? Any other ideas?

Thanks!
Krys

Not heard of apple puree, I substitute butter for oil though.

just subscribing to this one as I am really interested too!!!!

I was going to say substitute butter for a vege oil too. Light olive oil is good because it doesn't have a strong flavour.

Butter actually has lots of good fats in it, and is really not that unhealthy...
Butter has 80% of the calories of oil per unit of volume. It also has water (which creates flaxy textures) and sugar (which browns), which oil cannot do. So, while the saturated fat goes down when you use oil, the calories go up and the texture and flavor and color suffer. Not worth it.. You are better of controlling your fat intake through portion size - not eating so much of the cakes...like really the difference is negligable.

Lowering the sugar volume will also be very effective i controlling the potential fat but lowering the initia calorie intake.


However, if you are really set on changing...

1 cup butter = 3/4 cup oil. - CANOLA oil will generally yield the best results.
You can also use trans-fat free veg shortening if you can get it.
for the fruit purees - you will need to add about 4 tablespoons of oil for every 1/2 cup of puree. You may also want to cut back the sugar too.

NB: DO NOT USE EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL IN BAKING!!! lol unless the recipe specifically calls for it. Use lighter olive oil, or my personal preference, canola or vegetable oil. The strength of flavour in EVOO is just too overpowering - and the flavour will override the flavour of the cake

Checkout justbaking website to - great resource


HTH :)

krysalyss - I was running out of snack ideas for Kye and found a recipe for banana cupcakes for him. Problem was, it had a little bit too much sugar in it for my liking. As I like to keep the amount of sugar that K takes in to a minimum I thought I'd play around a bit with altering the quantities.
The recipe is below: I have cut the butter and the sugar down in this recipe and they still turn out yummy!!

Banana Cupcakes

125g butter - recipe says 125g but I only use 100g butter

3/4 cup caster sugar - recipe says 3/4 but I only used 1/4 cup sugar in the batch I made last night and they turned out great.
Next batch I make I am going to use apple puree for the whole amount and see what that turns out like

1 tsp vanila extract
2 eggs
1 cup (2-3) ripe mashed banana (really ripe bananas will give you more sweetness so you dont need as much sugar)
1 1/2 cups of wholemeal self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/3 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Using an electric mix beat butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Beat eggs in one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add mashed banana and beat until combined.

Sift flour and bicarb soda over banana mixture. Add milk. Spoon into muffin pans and bake for 18-20 minutes.

Give it a shot, I made some last night and they turned out awesome!! I gave one to Kye for morning tea today and he scoffed it :lol:

I use "Splendour" instead of sugar; 1 cup sugar = 1 cup splendour. Lower calories :lol:

I use less butter than needed, and sugar. I use brown sugar instead of white sugar and half it. I also use mash sweet potato to give it moisture and sweetness in almost all of my baking! Crazy I know but everything has mashed sweet potato in it.... choc chip biscuits (I also use linseeds in them!), muffins, brownies etc etc.... I dunno it seems to work for me!

Great tips guys - thanks so much! Can't wait to try some of them out.