Two-in-One Cake

Flan cakes seem difficult to make. If you’ve never baked one before, it’s a little scary to find yourself pouring cake batter right onto the top of a flan mixture. But go ahead and do it; the cake is actually easy. Because the two mixtures have different viscosities, they will not blend. When you pour one on top of the other, each keeps to itself.

In baking, the flan and the cake both retain their characteristic texture. So when you turn the flan cake upside down, you end up with a caramel-glazed flan on top and cake on the bottom.

But if making a flan cake is easy, trying to come up with a low-fat version was not. We found this recipe one of the most challenging of our low-fat baking series.

We couldn’t give you a rich flan made of eggs, heavy cream or condensed milk, and, of course, no true chiffon cake can be made without lots of egg yolks and lots of oil. But we’ve come up with a unique compromise, a combination of a maple-tapioca flan and a corn cake that has only a fraction of the fat of the original.

MAPLE-CORN FLAN CAKE

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup thawed nonfat egg substitute (equivalent to 3 eggs)

2 cups nonfat milk

1 teaspoon maple flavoring

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons instant tapioca

Corn Cake Batter

1 cup nonfat plain yogurt sweetened to taste, optional

Preheat 10-inch-round 2-inch-deep baking pan in 350-degree oven while caramelizing sugar. Heat 1/2 cup sugar in heavy 10-inch skillet over medium heat until bottom starts to melt. Stir and reduce heat to medium-low. Heat just until golden brown caramel, stirring occasionally. Quickly pour into hot pan (use oven mitts to handle hot pan), tilting pan to spread caramel evenly over bottom. Cool.

Whisk egg substitute in bowl with nonfat milk, maple flavoring, vanilla and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until smooth. Stir in tapioca and set aside.

Prepare Corn Cake Batter.

Stir tapioca mixture again to blend, then pour into caramel-lined pan. Carefully pour in Corn Cake Batter. Place pan in large shallow baking pan and place in 350-degree oven. Pour hot water into larger pan to reach about 1/3 up side of round cake pan. Bake about 45 minutes or until wood pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes on rack. Loosen sides and turn flan cake upside down onto large serving platter. Serve with nonfat yogurt. Makes 12 servings.

Each serving contains about:

187 calories; 242 mg sodium; 1 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 39 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 0.14 gram fiber.

Corn Cake Batter

1 (8-ounce) can whole-kernel corn

1 cup sifted cake flour

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon corn or canola oil

3 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Drain corn kernels and add water to liquid to make 1/2 cup. Reserve 1/2 of corn kernels and puree remaining half, adding 1/4 cup corn liquid. Combine puree with remaining corn liquid and corn kernels.

Re-sift cake flour with 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in bowl. Make well in center and add corn mixture, vanilla and oil. Stir until blended.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Slowly add remaining 1/2 cup sugar, beating until soft, smooth peaks form. Add half of whites to batter and fold until completely blended. Fold in remaining whites just until blended. Use batter immediately.