There’s been a change in The Spiced Life kitchen, one that will affect this blog, for how long I am not sure. Consequent to some horrendous abdomen pain, I discovered last week that I have a polyp on my gall bladder. I am not really sure why this is a problem, but it is and it appears that the typical solution is to remove the gall bladder. I say appears because I have not met with the doctor yet. But in the meantime, his secretary emphasized to me that the only way to control the pain is to eat as little fat as possible.
This is much harder than it sounds. A low fat let’s lose weight diet is very different from considering every little gram of fat for how much pain it might cause me. Take for example the previously innocent soybean, steamed and salted in their pods to perfection in Japanese restaurants (edamame). Turns out those suckers have a ton of fat, albeit healthy fat. I can attest to this based on the agony I was in last night at 2 AM after eating just 9 pods.
So for the foreseeable (but hopefully not too long) future, recipes on this blog will be as low in fat as possible. I literally made this cake at night, during a fit of despondent, self-pitying chocolate craving (I realize this has no chocolate, but it was dessert, and I did make the chocolate version a few days later for my in laws). Just remembering the existance of angel food cake (and subsequent research into other egg white and cocoa powder based desserts) was a huge relief for this chocolate and dessert addict.
Your angel food cake will rise quite high while baking, but it will collapse, even while upside down, while cooling, to about the height of the pan.This was my first attempt at a traditional angel food cake, and I was quite pleased with how it came out. Like all vanilla angel food cakes, it is definitely on the sweet side–Alex and I were discussing glazing it with a tart lemon glaze next time. It blew the socks off of a storebought angel food cake, especially because of the lemon zest in the recipe. I made this cake exactly as called for, except for 1 additional teaspoon of lemon zest (for a total of 1 tablespoon), so because my stomach hurts I am just going to link you the recipe.
The best method for cooling an angel food cake is to place it upside down on a wine bottle, even if your pan has feet (mine does). The height of the wine bottle provides much better air circulation, helping the cake to not collapse too much.
Sorry to hear! I had my gallbladder out due to mega gallstones. It was not a fun surgery, but I recovered very quickly… within a week or so. Fat was what triggered gallstone attacks, but now that it's out I can eat what I want. Will you be okay again once it's out? Good luck!!
Oh, I hope that all goes well! Surgery of any kind is a serious matter, but I'm glad that for now, you have a way of helping to control the discomfort. It does seem daunting at first to have to cut out fat but then again, I could totally subsist on this angel food cake if necessary. Take care!
Gosh! I hope the doctor comes up with a "no surgery" verdict. Either way, feel better soon so we can get back to seeing more chocolate chip cookies 🙂
🙁 I hope you feel better. But I'm glad this delicious idea came out of it. Get better soon!
Take care Laura…i hope it will pass away soon .
checked out your chocolate version too n bookmarked.
sweetie I am so sorry to hear this! But at least it is something treatable and so you will feel better soon!
In the meantime this angel food cake looks so scrumptious! love the extra lemon zest.
i'm sending good vibrations your way, laura–you'll be in my thoughts and prayers while this experience gets worked out.
yes, if one of the only desserts i could eat was angel food cake, i might be all right with that…for a while. 🙂
I am so sorry to hear about your illness; hopefully it will be dealt with soon and you can begin your recovery. In the meantime, I certainly appreciate the low-fat recipes!
Positive thoughts for a speedy recovery. Take care….
Aw, hope you feel better soon. At least this angel food cake won't may you miss the fat that much. All the best.
Oh no! (Or should I say, this is typical Laura?) You poor thing. Whatever the resolution is, I hope it is speedy.
And I agree with the general verdict that this looks delicious! Love the lemon.
i love this cake so much like the Angel cake my mom used to me. takes me back to my childhood.. yummy
hope you're better soon, time to hit the meringues and the macarons!! Try making a Pavlova with fresh fruit you'll love it
Been through the whole thing — a couple of years of very low fat, and subsequent surgery.
I think any new diet is daunting, but you'll find that there are many things very low in fat.
If you have a sweet tooth (like me), meringues are also good. You can make them like cookies (add cocoa powder for your chocolate fix) or larger Pavlovas filled with fruit. (Oops, just saw Kathy suggested the same thing.)
I also found there's a lot of junky candy that has no fat — Twizzlers is my favorite.
Good luck!
With the mommies day just around the corner, I was wondering what to prepare with the children for my wife and I think the angel food cake is a good deal. Thanks for sharing with us this great recipe.
That is one gorgeous angel cake! It looks like a giant popover.