Having My Cake and Eating It, Too

I'm looking for creative ways to cut empty calories, sugar and other simple carbohydrates, and saturated or hydrogenated fat from my regular diet. There are myriad ways to accomplish this, it's just a matter of finding some that work for me.

Here's something I'm trying today: Pillsbury's reduced sugar lemon cake and frosting (made with Splenda as well as sugar). I restrained myself from extemporaneously adding uncalled-for ingredients to the batter (a la Anne Bryn). Well, okay, I added some lemon zest. I know what you're saying: boxed cake mix and canned frosting are neither low in calories, free of saturated or hydrogenated fat, nor healthy in any sense of the word or by any stretch of the imagination! Yes, I know. But I'm a devoted fan of desserts. They are, by my definition anyway, not healthy but very, very yummy. Maybe, just maybe, if I constrain myself to these pretend cakes and frostings, I might come to give up on cakes altogether someday. Well, probably not. I would just go back to making the real thing.

After eating the concoction, I can now report. The cake itself is fine. It resembles its full-sugar boxed sister in almost every way. It would be very nice with a dusting of powdered sugar.







The frosting, on the other hand, is disgusting. Now, I'm only authorized to report on the lemon flavored frosting. Who knows what the chocolate one tastes like. But this one vaguely looked and tasted like soft, melted salt-water taffy: a bit too glossy, tacky, and artificially flavored. Again, I know, you're wondering what exactly I was expecting, but that's how I would describe it. Store-bought frosting is not something I normally use, but in this case I was very curious. There, I've done it for you so you can now avoid it.

Summary: it's okay to use the reduced sugar cake mixes if you're into that kind of thing. Don't bother with the lemon frosting- use powdered sugar instead. Happy baking!