Another treat for consideration this Valentine’s Day. I’ve often wondered why they call this dessert a “pie”. I’ve always figured it was because pie tins were more available than the type of cake pan we think of today when this dish was created by a Boston chef. It’s my husband’s favorite cake, actually. He asked me if I thought I could make a low-carb version of his favorite cake and I decided to give it a try. This famous dessert is only as good as the cake it’s made with. I used Nancy’s 3 Minute Vanilla Cake on Linda Genaw’s site. So I thought that would be a good starting point. I baked two of those (slightly modified) in 6″ ceramic quiche dishes. This recipe is not suitable for Induction.
CREAM FILLING INGREDIENTS: Whisk the following well in a small bowl. Chill for 20-30 minutes.
½ package sugar-free vanilla pudding powder
¼ c. heavy cream
½ c. water
If you prefer to make your pastry cream from scratch, I would recommend DJfoodie’s Pastry Cream recipe, but the stats below were calculated on the cream made with the dry pudding powder.
CHOCOLATE FROSTING INGREDIENTS: Make a recipe of this frosting and use 1/2 of it to frost this small cake. Refrigerate or freeze the remaining half for other uses. Exactly 1/2 of the recipe has been calculated in the nutritional info below.
CAKE INGREDIENTS:
4 T. butter, unsalted
2 eggs, beaten
4 T. water
½ c. granular Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener)
¼ c. golden flax meal
¼ c. almond flour
2/3 c. whey protein, unflavored, unsweetened
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
DIRECTIONS: In your microwave, melt 2 T. of the butter in each of two small 6″ quiche dishes. Add 1 beaten egg and 2 T. of water to each dish. Stir well to blend. Next add to each baking dish: ¼ c. Splenda (or equivalent liquid sweetener) , 2 T. flax meal, 2 T. almond flour, 1/3 c. whey protein, ½ tsp. vanilla extract and ½ tsp. baking powder. Stir well until completely smooth. Microwave each layer for about 70 seconds or until center is dry and spring back when touched. Remove and cool slightly. Using a flexible spatula, gently tip/lift out layer to your serving plate.
Remove cream from refrigerator and stir once for smoothness. Gently spread a ¼-½” layer of cream onto bottom layer of cake, which may not use it all up. If you’ve got kids, not a problem. They’ll be happy to take care of the leftovers for ya! 😉 Don’t get the cream too close to the edges of the cake or it will ooze out when layer #2 goes on.
Gently remove second cake from the dish and set it carefully on top of the cream layer. Slightly press to seat it well. Now spread a thin layer of frosting on the top of the cake. Frosting the sides is tricky, as the cream tends to want to ooze out and mix with the frosting. Not a problem, just smooth such spots back and forth and the cream and frosting will blend and nobody will ever know but you. 😉
Store uneaten cake in the refrigerator. Chill cake for 30 minutes or so to set the frosting and it’s ready to serve. I find this cake gets firmer when totally cold, so the next day, if any leftover, I like to pull it out of the fridge for an hour before serving so the cake and frosting return to their softer state. 🙂
NUTRITIONAL INFO: Makes 6 servings, each contains: (Carbs will be lower if you use liquid sweetener)
271 cals. , 23 g fat, 8.7g carbs, 2.22g fiber, 6.48g NET CARBS, 13 g protein, 250 mg sodium
SPECIAL NOTE: For those that want a bigger slice (with a higher carb price to pay): 1/4 of the cake=406 calories, 13.05 carbs, 3.33 g fiber, 9.72 g NET CARBS, 19.1 g protein, and 374 mg sodium.
Buttoni's Low-Carb Recipes 