Lemon cake: 3 minutes, 100 calories!

A couple weeks ago, my four-year-old decided it was my "betend buwtday." To celebrate, she served me "betend wemon sauce cake."


And then I wanted real lemon sauce cake. But I knew I didn't want a whole lemon cake in my house, so I tracked down a microwave lemon cake recipe. The original recipe called for 3Tbsp of oil, and one commenter had trouble with the cake turning out oily. So I cut calories and fat by replacing half that oil with applesauce.

The recipe:

3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 tablespoons confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
3 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice (I squeezed 1/3 of a medium lemon)
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest
splash of vanilla (oops, I forgot this!)

Mix the dry ingredients, then add the wet ingredients. The lemon juice will probably react with the baking soda and begin bubbling, resulting in a fluffy pancake-like batter.


Divide the batter between two ramekins and microwave. The original recipe suggested 45 seconds and that a full minute was too much. However, even after a minute, the edges of my cake were totally liquid. I ended up microwaving for 1:30.

The original recipe used a lemon juice + 2Tbsp confectioners' sugar glaze, but I used some leftover blackberry syrup. I'd also wanted to use this beautiful jar of lemon curd I have, but after the results, I decided it wasn't worth opening the jar.

The result was a little gummy at first and didn't release from my bowls well (even though they were greased and floured)--hence the :S on the plate.


However, after it had a few minutes to set, it tasted pretty darn good! I let my four-year-old try a bite and she insisted I share my cake with her. The bright flavor of lemon—and the word "deewicious!" from my daughter—totally brightened my day.

Each cake is 95 calories. Woot!

Have you tried microwave cakes?

4 comments :

Heather Landry said...

Well you really just can't beat that! Low calorie and yummy? Sign me up! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

Tracy said...

Yummm, this looks good, love that your daughter thought you should have a pretend birthday :)
I microwave angel food cake. I like that you only have to use 1/2 a box.

Lisa said...

She sounds like a such a sweetie and this dessert sounds great!

Just Jaime said...

I love that it's made in the microwave! Sounds like something I should try!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...