


4, large Eggs | |
110g Castor Sugar | |
110g Plain Flour | |
1/2 tsp Baking Powder | |
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract |
This fat-free easy sponge base is an ideal base for many desserts and is also suitable as a birthday cake. I believe that a small amount of regular sugar in baking is ok in a balanced diet. When looking at the sugar content of a recipe you need to be mindful of the portion size. If you need a cake to serve 4 people, it is better to scale down the recipe if it serves a lot more people. The portion sizes of all my recipes can be changed by clicking on the + or – on top of the ingredient section. I don’t use artificial sweeteners.
So, smaller portions, less heavy decorations, eat less high carbohydrates foods on the same day and add nuts (which slow down the rate that carbohydrates in the other ingredients are processed by the body) as part of the cake and enjoy an occasional treat!
Note:
1
Done
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Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease two 8” sandwich tins. |
2
Done
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Sieve the flour and baking powder together and set aside. |
3
Done
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Beat the eggs and sugar until very thick and pale with an electric or hand mixer. |
4
Done
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Carefully fold in the sieved flour and the vanilla extract. It’s important to get the flour mixed through with the minimum of mixing. Overmixing will cause the cake to be flat. I find a large perforated spoon handy for this. |
5
Done
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Pour half the mixture into each of the prepared tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until the sponge starts to come away from the sides of the tin and the top springs back when pressed and the top is lightly brown. Because there is no fat in this cake it will become very dry if overbaked, so ensure that it is removed from the oven as soon as it is baked. |
6
Done
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Remove from the oven and leave in the tins for 5 minutes, before turning out onto a wire cooling rack. This forms the basis of the sponge. The base on its own gives approx. 25g of carbs per portion. The carbohydrates content and the effect the cake has on blood glucose levels depends on the ingredients used in the filling and decoration. |
7
Done
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Fillings that are often used:Whipped cream or crème fraiche. Moisten the cakes with a little Baileys Irish cream liqueur or similar if liked. Filled with whipped cream or crème fraiche and sliced raspberries/blueberries or strawberries. Filling of strawberry jam and slices of strawberry. Topped with whipped cream. If you add jam, remember for every tablespoon of jam you are adding half a tablespoon of sugar. The more you add the more carbs you will have. The only exceptions are nuts. While nuts have a very small number of carbs, the fat in them slows down the absorption rate of the sugars in the cake. Nuts are nice toasted and used to decorate the sides or top of many types of cake. Or a few scattered over a plain cake is nice. * The fat in the cream will also slow down the absorption rate of the sugars, but it contains saturated fat and isn’t good in large amounts and should only be eaten occasionally. |