High-Calorie Cake Recipe Help

[blackxlily]

I made a cake from scratch today and after I calculated the calorie count, I found that it had 1200 calories per 1/8 of the cake! The cake seems fairly normal texture wise. It was baked in a 9 in diameter round pan. I just wanted to know if anyone else has ever baked a cake with such a high calorie content.

I suspect that it may have been the recipe itself, I'm just not sure if this is a popular kind of cake or what.

 

[Cooking from your heart]

I made a cake from scratch today and after I calculated the calorie count, I found that it had 1200 calories per 1/8 of the cake! The cake seems fairly normal texture wise. It was baked in a 9 in diameter round pan. I just wanted to know if anyone else has ever baked a cake with such a high calorie content.

I suspect that it may have been the recipe itself, I'm just not sure if this is a popular kind of cake or what.

Hi, can you post the ingredients?

 

[Becky]

That's certainly high but not unusual for some cakes! Are you looking to make a lower calorie version? If you've got a link to the recipe that would be useful

 

[-Daniel-]

That sounds like a lot... how did you calculate the calories?

 

[blackxlily]

Well, I don't remember the exact ingredients, but the ones I think made it so heavy was one can of evaporated milk and 2 pounds of confectioners sugar. I ended up scraping the sugar off and making it into something else.

 

[blackxlily]

Well, I don't remember the exact ingredients, but the ones I think made it so heavy was one can of evaporated milk and 2 pounds of confectioners sugar. I ended up scraping the sugar off and making it into something else.

Best guess is:

Cake:
1/2 can evaporated milk
2 sticks butter
2 3/4 cups flour
4 eggs
2 cups sugar

Frosting:
6 oz. marscapone cheese
2 lbs confectioners sugar
1/2 can evap. milk

 

[Becky]

Looks like a lot of the moisture is coming from the evaporated milk, which is very high in sugar (hence all the calories). I bet it's delicious though! If you wanted to reduce the calorie content you could always swap out the evaporated milk for regular milk. You can do the same with the frosting, but maybe mix the sugar and cheese together first, then add just enough milk so that you get the texture you want.

Alternatively, just keep the recipe the same and make it as a single-layer tray bake instead. That way you can cut it into smaller pieces, so everyone gets to enjoy a bit without feeling so guilty about it

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Yes that seems very high. Recipe and method can really impact the amount of fat and calories in a cake.

Technique can be a gauge to guide you toward cakes with lower fat and calories.

A butter cake uses the creaming method. This requires substantially more butter, sugar, milk, and eggs.

By contrast, foam cakes are leavened by whipped egg whites or ribboned whole eggs. They use less flour and sugar. Butter is used in very small quantities.

In many foam cake recipes, oil replaces butter. This difference can substantially reduces the amount of saturated fat in the cake when the appropriate oil is used.

Where a tablespoon of butter contains 7 grams of saturated fat, an oil like safflower oil contains 1 gram of saturated fat.

Never use coconut oil as it is nearly 90% saturated fat. A single tablespoon of coconut oil contains 12 grams of saturated fat.

Foam cakes require significantly less liquid as well. So little or no milk is used. Often, juice or other liquids can replace milk.

Foam cakes are sponge cakes, chiffon cakes, and genoise.

Since we Asians prefer a less sweet cake, many sponge, chiffon, and genoise have a per serving calorie count similar to a candy bar.

The Japanese also make a cake called castella. It’s a sponge cake introduced to Japan by Europeans. But over the years Japanese have made this cake their own.

Evaporated milk has a significantly higher amount of fat and calories compared to fresh milk. Where evaporated milk is 7% – 10% fat, depending on brand, whole fresh milk is 3.25% fat.

1/2 cup of evaporated milk contains about 170 calories.

1/2 cup whole milk contains about 75 calories.

Evaporated milk was invented to extend shelf life. But given the high fat and calories, it came in to popular use during WWII. For soldiers on the battlefield, evaporated milk provided much needed energy in the form of high calories and fat in a compact can. Off the battlefield, whole milk was rationed, so not available for baking. Bakers quickly discovered evaporated milk made a good substitution for fresh milk. So many recipes with evaporated milk originated from the war years.

Reducing caloric and fat in icings are more challenging as the primary ingredients are fat and sugar. Use of low fat cream cheese, sugar substitutes, replacing some or all the butter with non-dairy alternatives helps.

A link for a Japanese sponge cake recipe and video.


https://www.japanesecooking101.com/sponge-cake-recipe/

 

[blackxlily]

Looks like a lot of the moisture is coming from the evaporated milk, which is very high in sugar (hence all the calories). I bet it's delicious though! If you wanted to reduce the calorie content you could always swap out the evaporated milk for regular milk. You can do the same with the frosting, but maybe mix the sugar and cheese together first, then add just enough milk so that you get the texture you want.

Alternatively, just keep the recipe the same and make it as a single-layer tray bake instead. That way you can cut it into smaller pieces, so everyone gets to enjoy a bit without feeling so guilty about it

That is what I thought. I had forgotten that evaporated milk is very high in calories. I've read that making frosting should be done very gradually, which I didn't do. I kind of dumped it together quickly. I think that the cake itself turned out to taste pretty good, but the frosting was way too sweet. By the way, your avatar is super cute!

 

[blackxlily]

Yes that seems very high. Recipe and method can really impact the amount of fat and calories in a cake.

Technique can be a gauge to guide you toward cakes with lower fat and calories.

A butter cake uses the creaming method. This requires substantially more butter, sugar, milk, and eggs.

By contrast, foam cakes are leavened by whipped egg whites or ribboned whole eggs. They use less flour and sugar. Butter is used in very small quantities.

In many foam cake recipes, oil replaces butter. This difference can substantially reduces the amount of saturated fat in the cake when the appropriate oil is used.

Where a tablespoon of butter contains 7 grams of saturated fat, an oil like safflower oil contains 1 gram of saturated fat.

Never use coconut oil as it is nearly 90% saturated fat. A single tablespoon of coconut oil contains 12 grams of saturated fat.

Foam cakes require significantly less liquid as well. So little or no milk is used. Often, juice or other liquids can replace milk.

Foam cakes are sponge cakes, chiffon cakes, and genoise.

Since we Asians prefer a less sweet cake, many sponge, chiffon, and genoise have a per serving calorie count similar to a candy bar.

The Japanese also make a cake called castella. It’s a sponge cake introduced to Japan by Europeans. But over the years Japanese have made this cake their own.

Evaporated milk has a significantly higher amount of fat and calories compared to fresh milk. Where evaporated milk is 7% – 10% fat, depending on brand, whole fresh milk is 3.25% fat.

1/2 cup of evaporated milk contains about 170 calories.

1/2 cup whole milk contains about 75 calories.

Evaporated milk was invented to extend shelf life. But given the high fat and calories, it came in to popular use during WWII. For soldiers on the battlefield, evaporated milk provided much needed energy in the form of high calories and fat in a compact can. Off the battlefield, whole milk was rationed, so not available for baking. Bakers quickly discovered evaporated milk made a good substitution for fresh milk. So many recipes with evaporated milk originated from the war years.

Reducing caloric and fat in icings are more challenging as the primary ingredients are fat and sugar. Use of low fat cream cheese, sugar substitutes, replacing some or all the butter with non-dairy alternatives helps.

A link for a Japanese sponge cake recipe and video.


https://www.japanesecooking101.com/sponge-cake-recipe/

Thank you for the advice. Though, I must say that I am Asian and I loooove sweets! The cake I made was a tad TOO sweet, however. My Mom is kind of scared of sweets and always says that she doesn't like them. It seems like she only says it because she's scared it will make her fat. Yet fear of sweets is just another fad...it used to be fear of fat or fear of protein, etc. The fact is, if you eat an excess of calories over time, you will gain weight. It doesn't matter what you eat. You could eat just one slice of the cake I made, consume 1200 calories, sit on your butt all day, and you'd still lose weight. People are always like "oh, but I want to eat BIG food like apples and not the tiny chocolates" but the fact is that the sugar in foods like chocolates are just more concentrated because chocolates don't have as much water in them. With an apple it is like you've put the sugar into a glass of water, while the chocolate has sugar in a solid, so it is more condensed since the molecules are closer together. Also chocolate has fat in it and apples don't, etc...


These days, why does everyone demand to eat so MUCH? Isn't that what made Americans fat in the first place?? In my opinion, people should just eat, count calories, and stop blaming obesity on one specific substance (sugar, fat, protein, air, existing, toothpaste). Anyways...

I don't agree with using sugar substitutes for baking. I prefer traditional sugar. For the cake I was making I was just using what my Mom bought and wasn't using, so I didn't really have a lot of choices in terms of low fat cream cheese and the like. Perhaps I should have grabbed the margarine instead of butter, but I know that will affect the texture of the cake. I don't think I will be using evaporated milk anymore, though. It really pushed the sugar content of the frosting to a point where it just tasted terrible.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thank you for the advice. Though, I must say that I am Asian and I loooove sweets! The cake I made was a tad TOO sweet, however. My Mom is kind of scared of sweets and always says that she doesn't like them. It seems like she only says it because she's scared it will make her fat. Yet fear of sweets is just another fad...it used to be fear of fat or fear of protein, etc. The fact is, if you eat an excess of calories over time, you will gain weight. It doesn't matter what you eat. You could eat just one slice of the cake I made, consume 1200 calories, sit on your butt all day, and you'd still lose weight. People are always like "oh, but I want to eat BIG food like apples and not the tiny chocolates" but the fact is that the sugar in foods like chocolates are just more concentrated because chocolates don't have as much water in them. With an apple it is like you've put the sugar into a glass of water, while the chocolate has sugar in a solid, so it is more condensed since the molecules are closer together. Also chocolate has fat in it and apples don't, etc...


These days, why does everyone demand to eat so MUCH? Isn't that what made Americans fat in the first place?? In my opinion, people should just eat, count calories, and stop blaming obesity on one specific substance (sugar, fat, protein, air, existing, toothpaste). Anyways...

I don't agree with using sugar substitutes for baking. I prefer traditional sugar. For the cake I was making I was just using what my Mom bought and wasn't using, so I didn't really have a lot of choices in terms of low fat cream cheese and the like. Perhaps I should have grabbed the margarine instead of butter, but I know that will affect the texture of the cake. I don't think I will be using evaporated milk anymore, though. It really pushed the sugar content of the frosting to a point where it just tasted terrible.

I think the preference for sweetness depends on whether you’re raised in a Western culture or in Asia. All my Japanese relatives and friends prefer the significantly less sweet Japanese versions of cake and pastry. My mother and sister-in-law were born and raised in Japan, but after living in the US for 35+ years, both developed a taste for the more sweeter American desserts, but in very small portions. I lean toward the less sweet. My oldest son loves sweets, but my youngest will take the savory over the sweet every time. He doesn’t even care for chocolate!!

My American friends are always astonished by the lack of sugar in pastries made in Japanese and Korean bakeries here. It’s definitely culture shock

The type of sugar definitely has an effect on the finished product. Even with regular sugar the source of the sugar is important. I only use cane sugar as sugar beet sugar does not caramelize. Aside from the lack of flavor from the Maillard reaction, it can also adversely effect texture.

I agree food fear drives perceptions and food choices. And unfortunately many base their choices on misinformation from marketing campaigns. For years now High Fructose Corn Syrup has been vilified for the high fructose (55%) content; yet those same critics tout the greatness of the “natural” agave. But agave is 70% to 90% fructose depending on brand. Cane sugar is 50% sucrose and 50% fructose. So I use cane sugar.

Butter vs coconut oil is another example of how the public is misinformed. Coconut oil is touted as “healthy” and “natural”, yet it contains far more saturated fat than butter. And there are no nutritional and/or medical definitions or standards for “healthy” and “natural”. Arsenic is a naturally occurring element, so “natural” is not a indicator of nutritional value.

Certainly there are some ingredients that can trigger medical problems, I cannot consume gluten due to celiac; other members in my family have diabetes, so restrict sugars and carbs. But I try to keep an open mind and educate myself on ingredients. I think moderation is the key...although I will eat a pot of rice if left alone in the same room.