Healthy Valentine's Day Cake for Your Sweet Heart

I am the first to say the I LOVE TREATS of all kinds but not the calories! However, this Valentine's Day check out a couple of easy and waist friendly recipes for your sweet heart.

The first recipe is an Angel Food Cake recipe, a light and airy cake low in calories and fat free because Angel Food Cake is made with egg yolks and powdered sugar instead of heavy cane sugar and regular eggs. People automatically link Angel Food Cakes to a bland and dry taste. Some tips for enhancing the flavor of the cake and making it a Valentine's Day themed cake on the inside is adding your favorite extract to the batter. Also, don't add food coloring to the mix, it waters down the batter, instead, add half a packet of strawberry, cherry or raspberry Kool-Aid drink mix to your batter for a rich color.

The same goes for the topping, if you prefer another type of extract or are allergic to almonds, try an extract of your choice. Strawberry extract would work very well with this topping. For a red color or slightly pink color, add Wilton's Food Coloring. Don't buy the water based food coloring as they do not add rich color and really water down the topping. Simply, take a toothpick, stick it in the food coloring and then swirl it in the topping mix until color of choice is achieved. For a Valentine's Day effect, cut strawberries in half so that they look like hearts and place them atop the cake. Heart-shaped sprinkles will give the cake a full Valentine's effect.

A good substitute for the granulated sugar is Stevia sugar. 

I call this concoction Cupid Cake with a twist:

Low-Calorie Angel Food Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cups egg whites (approximately 12 large eggs)
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Mix flour and powdered sugar and set aside.
3. In a large glass bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until foamy but not stiff.
4. Switch to high speed and add granulated sugar 2 tablespoons at a time.
5. Add salt, vanilla, and almond with final tablespoon of sugar.
6. Continue beating until stiff and glossy.
7. Sprinkle flour-sugar mixture over meringue 1/4 cup at a time, folding in just until mixture disappears.
8. Pour batter into ungreased tube pan (10x4 inches).
9. With a metal spatula cut gently through batter.
10. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until cracks feel dry and top brings back when lightly touched.
11. Remove from oven, invert pan on funnel, and allow pan to hang until cake is cool.
12. Remove cake from pan and ice with low-calorie almond topping.

 Low Calorie Fluffy Almond Topping

Ingredients:

• 1 small tub sugar-free refrigerated whipped topping (8 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cups sliced or slivered almonds, toasted (optional)

Preparation:

1. Mix almond extract into refrigerated topping, stirring gently.
2. Lightly coat each slice of cake with topping just before serving.
3. Garnish with one teaspoon of toasted almonds.

Yield: 12 slices

Calories: 140 without topping, 217 with topping. Less calories if sweetened with Stevia sugar rather than granulated sugar.