There's this rumor going around some of my dieting friends that you can substitute avocado for butter and... er... something... healthy fats... cholesterol... something. Which brings us back to Marcus' kitchen and to...
Avocado Cake ¼ c. avocado* ½ c. sugar ¾ c. flour 1 egg Heat oven to 350°. Grease a 6" pan (no one diets with full-sized cakes). Pack enough avocado firmly into a measuring cup to give you a quarter cup. Mix with the sugar, mixing it thoroughly until you've gotten the lumps out... or at least the relatively big ones. Add the egg and mix it in completely. Then add the flour, stirring just until mixed- any longer and the cake might get kind of toughened. Bake until a knife, toothpick, or whatever penetrative object you've got lying around comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed. *you'll likely be using less than a whole avocado. |
You may recognize the recipe this started from- it's one of my favorite things to make. I reduced it to as small an amount as I could before I had to try to get half an egg. And now, because I just thought what I was about to do was so ridiculous, I took a picture of all the cake ingredients on the table.
Making diet "dessert" recipes always feels kind of ridiculous to me. I don't mean the desserts that are already diet on their own like those raw fruit tarts- those range from "eh, it'll do" to really good. I mean diet as in taking something that's unapologetically bad for you and trying by means of wierd substitutions and such to make it into something that won't break your diet. It always feels like something has gone very wrong when I'm making them.
The substitutions and modifications always add a lot more required effort to making the desserts. Given that you're making a sad imitation of whatever the recipe says it's supposed to be, eating the end result is adding insult to added drudgery.
A cake about to go wrong looks like this. |
Y'know, it actually looks kind of pretty. |
"It looks like ground-up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle." -Marcus |
It soon became evident that hand-mashing wouldn't work this time. We got out a whisk and, as Fanny Cradock would do, thought of someone we really really don't like but we're too well-bred to say what we think of them. It got most of the lumps out.
Doesn't it look like that slime they sold in the 90s? |
Once the avocado was thoroughly broken up, the rest of mixing went really fast. |
I just think the motion blur in this one looks really cool. |
At this point, I'd like to point out something that says a lot about me. Despite knowing perfectly well what was in this, I got mad when Marcus pointed out there wasn't enough batter in the pan so I had to get out a rubber spatula and properly scrape the pot. Also, we don't have a tiny cake pan, so a miniature pie pan stood in.
Yes. I have semi-voluntarily used a childcheater. |
It's leveled enough. |
I miss having a wall-mounted air conditioner to cool things on. |
Kinda looks like a green meringue, doesn't it? |
I was actually thinking I might do it again and add mint extract to match the color. |
"It's like a train wreck! It's bad, but I can't stop eating it!" |
"It could be worse! Someone else had to try shrimp gelatin!" |
This is when I went from anticipation to realization. |
As kitchen scares go, this one was relatively benign. I'm relieved, but actually more disappointed. More to follow...
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