Baking Secrets: Butter isn't always better

Ok, so I'm addicted to sweets, and baking/cooking, so I figured I should devote at least a little section of my blog to my many experiments in the kitchen. I don't have any pictures of this last experiment, because I already gobbled up the cake I made where I actually applied these techniques I'll be sharing. I do promise to take a quick pic of whatever I make in the future before I decide to stuff my face.

Anyhow, it seems that wherever I look, people are posting recipes that definitely look delicious and taste-bud pleasing, but they're also heart attack inducing and tummy ache producing, at least for me. After having my gallbladder removed, I have to stick to a somewhat low fat diet. This has required me to alter the way I bake. So below are a few low fat tips that actually work and don't leave your tummy, heart, or taste buds unhappy.
A few tips on baking low fat cookies:
I'm not really a fan of using apple sauce instead of butter (this only applies to cookies, don't use apple sauce in cakes unless the recipe calls for it) but I have found a way of making cookies that are less fatty, just as good, and sometimes even better than the original recipe. If you want to go the apple sauce route -- let's say the recipe for a batch of chocolate chip cookies calls for about a cup of butter, as most of them do -- add a HALF CUP apple sauce instead, if you use a full cup of apple sauce, they'll come out much too soft and chewy without much crunch. If you're a fan of Paula Dean, and you love that stick of butter, then go ahead and use it, but just cut the required amount in half; the cookies will be crunchier and less soft. If you want them soft without the butter fat, then use an extra egg yolk (don't include the egg white. And yes, I know egg yolks are still fatty, but at least they have more protein, silly!).

How to make moist cakes without all that butta :
It's quite the opposite with cakes, though, at least on that last note. You actually want to use less egg yolks and mostly egg whites if you want a cake that's light and fluffy. About a week ago, I made a cake that called for 3 whole eggs and one half cup of butter. I changed the recipe up by adding 1 whole egg and the egg whites of the remaining 2 eggs; I also replaced the butter with Canola oil (this is another fat-cutting technique) and added 2 TBS light sour cream (to make it extra moist without calling on Duncan Hines for help). When I followed the recipe exactly the first time around, the cake was pretty good, but it was surprisingly much better the second time around...and it was less fatty. Just because something claims to be low fat doesn't mean it has to taste low quality.

So here's the recipe for a yellow cake:
(You'll use 2 round 9" pans for this recipe; fill each one about one-third the way. Pre-heat oven to 350 and cook for 25 minutes; and if you're not lazy like me, go ahead and mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry in another, then mix both together in a big bowl...but if you're more like me, just throw it all together and mix the ingredients enough to get rid of the lumps, but not too much because it'll mess up the baking process--it has something to do with the baking powder and how it reacts with the remaining ingredients, I read about it on a cooking chemistry site but I don't remember the details, just this little tidbit, ha!)

The original:
2 cups cake flour
2 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP salt
1/2 Cup butter
1 Cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 TSP vanilla extract
3/4 Cup milk

My low-fat version:
2 Cups cake flour
2 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP salt
1/2 Cup Canola oil
1 1/4 cup sugar (it needs a little more)
1 whole egg
2 egg whites (from 2 eggs)
2 TSP vanilla extract
3/4 Cup non-fat milk
2 TBSP light sour cream
oh yeah, 1/2 TSP orange zest (it makes a difference!)