Birthday Cake Success!

Birthdays are such a struggle for me. Do I make both a fat free cake and a fat full cake? Do I buy one or the other? Do we all eat the fat free cake? 

 This year for my birthday I decided to make both myself. We are Great British Baking Show junkies, so I chose this, GIUSEPPE’S AMARENA CHERRY CAKE, and OH MAN! It was SUCH a success! 

 I don't think I've ever made a yeasted cake before, and I love it. It tastes more like a coffee cake to me, but then when you load it with pudding or custard and a frosting like glaze (and I put some kirsch liqueor on mine, too), it was just excellent. Light, moist, sweet but not too sweet, with big chunks of DELICIOUS cherries. 

 That's one of the keys to the recipe, I think, using the expensive cherries in jars that are just so delicious. And don't worry, you don't waste any of that delicious syrup, either! You soak the baked cakes in it! So yum! 

 I admit this post is mostly for future reference for me to find the recipe in the future. I soaked the dried cherries in the amarena cherry juice/syrup instead of rum for the kids, even though it would get cooked off, I wasn't sure they would enjoy the flavor of rum. 

 So, the changes I made for the fat free version: 

 -I used the flaked almonds but the kids didn't like them, so there's an easy way to cut back the fat next time 

 -I used skim milk instead of whole 

 -I did 3 eggs plus 2 egg whites instead of yolks (leftover from the fatty version I made) 

 -instead of any butter or MCT oil or coconut oil at ALL, I used all fat free yogurt, strained to make it a big thicker, like a yogurt cheese. I can't BELIEVE how beautifully it turned out with this big change!! 

 -I used instant vanilla pudding mix instead of the custard at all, and they really really loved it. I piped it on to make it more fancy, but there was plenty left over that they piped onto their individual pieces. I did add a bit of extra vanilla extract to it for extra flavor, and of course used skim milk. 

 -I just excluded the butter from the honey syrup and added all the leftover amarena juice/syrup I had 

 -and of course skim milk for the almond glaze. 

 I forgot to do any altitude adjustments, and made it in the bundt pans I have and it turned out so good.

Just out of the oven, praying they look this good all the way through

They do!  They look so good!  Low fat version on the left

Can you tell it's low fat?  So yum

The best possible birthday gift - two beautiful cakes that turned out and my kids loved. Oh! And Thomas update - pretty soon after that last post, Thomas stopped appreciating the skimmed breastmilk I was making. He turned 1, so we stopped sweating it - I backed down to pumping once a day, and freezing it just to donate to the local milk bank and keep my supply up. During the day, my husband mixes the Monogen formula samples we got with skim cow's milk for extra calories, and Thomas is just fine with that. Score! Extra calories and non fat and I don't have to go through the process of skimming breastmilk anymore! Hurray! Thomas still loves to nurse, and will sometimes sadly make the sign for nursing when taking a bottle, to show that this is NOT what he really wants. But he is growing (slowly)!