Low Carb, Almost Sugarless: Low Carb Italian Sponge Cake
No, you’re not dreaming. That is one amazing photo (and dessert) you are drooling at! It was taken by my friend Rodney who is a professional food photographer. My friends Carlos and Rodney drove down from Los Angeles to visit us in San Diego. We have not seen each other for months and we were delighted they were able to spend the weekend with us. Of course, any visit includes cooking and experimenting with recipes. They brought me a birthday ‘cake’ — my favorite TIRAMISU– which Rodney made. I kept the cake all to myself and didn’t share it with anyone (yea, yea..i know how selfish of me! LOL). In between endless snacking from breakfast to dinner, we were trying different recipes. Mostly low carb ones since Carlos is on a low carb lifestyle. We tested low carb soy pasta which was not so bad sauteed in garlic butter with basil sauce. Although Carlos thought it still has more carbs than the soy pasta they buy in the store. Then we had a taste of my low fat, sugarless Hibiscus Cheesecake with our coffee, minus the crust of course!  While I enjoy another slice of my tiramisu, we decided to check the internet for low carb ladyfingers so that they can make low carb tiramisu next time. Instead, we found this low carb sponge cake recipe from www.lowcarbluxury.com which turned out to be a winner. The cake was airy, soft and tasted just like any sponge cake–without the carbs and sugar! I I can’t wait for the low carb version of Rodney’s tiramisu!
Ingredients:
- 5 eggs, separated
- 1 tbs plus 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbs soy flour
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 5 tbs splenda or any sugar substitute
- 1 tsp grated lemon peel
- 4 tbs heavy cream
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Place egg yolks and Splenda in a bowl. Beat with electric mixer until well blended. Add vanilla extract and lemon peel.
- Continue to beat and add soy flour one tablespoon at a time. Stir in heavy cream.
- In a separate bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff but not dry. Fold yolk mixture into egg whites. Be careful not to break down egg whites — so fold carefully and slowly.
- Pour into greased 9″ cake pan and bake at 325°F for 30 minutes or until cake tests done.
Makes 9 servings. Â 6 grams of carbohydrate per serving.
Notes: I was going to take a picture of one square slice of sponge cake. I am glad Rodney took over and showed me how to “set-up” a food photo shoot. Grabbing some strawberries from the refrigerator, a bottle of sugarfree chocolate sauce and a few teaspoonfuls of the vanilla cream sauce I made this morning, my little square of a sponge cake was transformed into food porn.
Totally interesting recipe! The pics look great!
Lovely plating! That sponge cake would go really well with a nice scoop or two of ice cream. Yum!
Italian sponge cake = YUM
Beautiful photography! That sponge cake looks incredible. Man oh man, I’d love some right now. It looks light and fluffy and lucious. So glad you got a chance to catch up with your friends!
The sponge cake looks wonderful! If I were there, I would have picked Rodney’s brain for every bit of food photography tricks he could offer!
in the directions you mention adding the soy flour; it is not mentioned in the ingredients. 1) how much of it do you need? 2) can you use all-purpose flour instead?