When you are on your way to Thinlandia, fattening desserts are a thing of the past; you just don’t have room in your diet to waste 500 calories on a piece of pie! So, you have to truly make every calorie count. For me, that means that I generally like to keep my desserts around 100 calories or less. Now you can get about 9 peanut M&M’s for 100 calories, or about 1/5 of a piece of pecan pie. Or, you can choose to get a little more bang for your caloric buck. I will often choose 1/8 of a cup (2 tablespoons) of dark chocolate Raisinets for 90 calories, or one of Blue Bunny’s 100 calorie ice cream desserts.
Chocolate Raisinets or ice cream sandwiches are great, but sometimes, I have a longing for cake. Realizing that a regular slice can cost me 350 calories and up, I will often opt to make a light and airy sponge cake, because I can get a decent sized slice for around 100 calories. It also makes a wonderful base for strawberry shortcake. You take a slice, pile on three or four large sliced strawberries, add a dollop of Fat Free Cool Whip, and you’re good!
Trying to get more creative than a plain vanilla version, I modified a great recipe from www.allrecipes.com to make a Pina Colada Version. I made it in an 8-inch springform pan, because it was easier to get out of the pan and divided nicely into nine short slices.
Light & Airy Pina Colada Sponge Cake
3 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons crushed pineapple
1/2 teaspoon imitation coconut extract
1/2 cup cake flour
1/4 cup sweetened coconut
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
pinch salt
Directions:
1. Separate the eggs.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks until very thick and lemon colored. Beat in sugar gradually. Add crushed pineapple and coconut extract. Beat in flour.
3. In another bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Then add cream of tartar and salt. Beat mixture until whites are stiff, but not dry. Fold this whipped mixture into yolk mixture.
Pour batter into an ungreased 8 inch or smaller springform pan. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for approximately 20-30 minutes, or until a nice golden color.
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size 43 g, or 1/9 of cake
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 102
Calories from Fat 21
Total Fat 2.3g
Saturated Fat 1.2g
Cholesterol 70mg
Sodium 28mg
Total Carbohydrates 17.3g
Sugars 11.6g
Protein 3.3g
To continue with the Pina Colada theme, I made a simple yet flavorful topping.
Fold together:
1/2 cup plain nonfat yogurt
2 cups fat free Cool Whip
1/4 cup crushed pineapple
1/2 cup sweetened flaked coconut
Put a 1/8 cup to 1/4 cup dollop on each slice, depending on how many calories you want to invest in dessert!
Makes approximately 2 1/4 – 2 1/2 cups topping
1/4 cup topping is about 67 calories
