low fat blueberry bundt cake

its kind of intense when i think about how its already may! 2007 has gone by so fast already. i attribute such warped sense of time to my happiness in life. as they say, time flies when youre having fun. and life really is a blast right now!

this last week i was definitely missing my oven, which explains the lack of exciting entries! it was not optimal for baking, as there was a lot of good events things that happened in the family. first off, id like to welcome l.'s (my sister who makes marvelous quiche) new daughter! baby a! is sooo adorable (she is so cute that her online alias will be a! not just a. but a!) and tiny and i just want to hug her. i havent been able to see her but she is on my desktop, phone, among many other highly visible locations. im obsessed! im so excited i will see her in 2 weeks! and my other sister p. got into her first-choice grad school! (ambiguity is to maintain the anonymity) also yesterday was my aunts birthday! another year wiser, of course. good things are happening in life!

thats why i thought i needed to mirror some good things in the oven! with spring in full bloom, evidenced by the fabulous farmer's market i went to today, i wanted to make something springy and colorful! after browsing on blogs endlessly, i finally decided on a blueberry muffins/cakes/cupcake! low fat blueberry bundt cakes! ok i dont think they are technically bundt cakes, but my new molds came, and i wanted to make use of them! besides, my friend s says i can put whatever i want into my bundt pans! (technically the silicon molds are savarin molds, but i havent yet been able to distinguish the 2. all i know is that they make pretty cake patterns!)

so according to wikipedia, a bundt cake is the "name used for a dessert caked cooked in a Bundt pan." it is actually trademarked by a Mr. H. David Dalquist in 1950. the story goes something like this. mr. dalquist wanted to create the optimal pan for bundkuchen, a popular German coffee cake. Older pans were made out of ceramic or heavy cast iron, which lacked in the ease of use department. As a result, Mr. Dalquist modified some existing Scandinavian pan designs by introducing folds in the outer edge, and fashioned the pan out of aluminum. Fast forward almost 60 years and we have silicone versions of these babies and recreated completely different recipes for these! im definitely on team innovation!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup all-purpose and 1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 cup 1% milk
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2/3 packed cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup frozen blueberries

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350°F.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon until well combined. Set aside.
3. In another medium bowl, using a handheld electric mixer set at high speed, beat the milk, applesauce, brown sugar, egg, oil, and vanilla until frothy, about two minutes. Pour in the liquid mixture into the dry one. Using a spoon, mix just until moistened. Gently fold in the blueberries until the flour is incorporated. Do not overmix.
4. Divide the batter into molds. [for mini molds, fill only halfway] Bake until the tops spring back when pressed gently in the center, about 20 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool in the pan on a wire cake rim for 10 minutes before removing from cups. Serve warm or cool.

if you notice, the recipe is super low fat. i cut out a lot of the oil in this recipe and used unsweetened applesauce to get a similar texture and consistency. as a rule of thumb, usually 1 cup of oil can be substituted with 3/4-1 cup of unsweetened applesauce, which is what i did. i added 1.5 tbsp of canola oil because you should allow a small portion of the butter/oil to remain in the recipe for the sake of taste.

so when i made my mini bundt cakes, i put too much batter so they looked like awkward muffins. thats no fun! and since im big on creativity, i took the cute muffin tops and made parfaits with them! a layer of the cake, a layer of instant vanilla pudding, a layer of fruits, then repeat! then i topped it all with some fat free cool whip! they turned out REALLY delicious! the only problem is since im an amateur, the layers did not come out very pretty. nonetheless, they tasted really great! im so impressed! next time, to cut the calorie count, ill use sugar free jello! other than that, i think i decreased the fat grams as much as i could without sacrificing flavor. ta da!

looks pretty good doesnt it? it tasted pretty good!

after making 6 mini bundt cakes, i had a lot of leftover batter. i decided to whip out my yellow bundt cake mold and give it a whirl in the oven. i put it in the oven at a temperature a bit lower than for the mini bundt cakes (340F), and ran into the shower. 20 minutes later [i shower fast!], i went downstairs to take the cake out and let it sit for a few minutes. when it was almost cooled, i was able to fold it out of the mold perfectly! i was impressed! it looked so pretty!

im giving this cake to my little sister who is in college studying for finals! i will see her tonight and bring her the lovely cake!

bon appetite!!