ORANGE SOUR CREAM CAKES

ORANGE SOUR CREAM CAKES
5 ounces butter, softened *
1 cup granular Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda (see my comments below)
4 eggs
2 tablespoons orange zest (7 grams) **
1 teaspoon orange extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sour cream
6 ounces almond flour (about 1 1/2 cups)

Butter 12 nonstick muffin cups well. Put everything in a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer until fluffy. Spoon into the muffin tins. Bake at 350?20-25 minutes or until firm to the touch and golden brown. Cool then remove from the tin. I recommend waiting a day before serving these. They're good the day they're made but by the next day they firm up and the texture is more like pound cake.

Makes 12 servings
Can be frozen

* This equals 1 stick plus 2 tablespoons
** You'll need 1 large orange

With granular Splenda:
Per Serving: 220 Calories; 20g Fat; 6g Protein; 6g Carbohydrate; 1.5g Dietary Fiber; 5.5g Net Carbs

With liquid Splenda:
Per Serving: 212 Calories; 20g Fat; 6g Protein; 3.5g Carbohydrate; 1.5g Dietary Fiber; 2g Net Carbs

I don't remember where I found this recipe but they're very tasty. I did increase the sweetener by quite a bit. The original recipe called for only 6 tablespoons of granular Splenda. Based on a similar recipe, I changed it to 1 cup of Splenda. The batter tasted very sweet but they aren't quite as sweet once they're baked. You might be able to get away with 1/2 cup of Splenda though if you want to reduce the carbs a bit. I also increased the amount of orange zest because I got 2 tablespoons of it from the orange that I bought. I'm glad that I did or I think the orange flavor might have been a little weak. Another thing that I did was to simplify the mixing method. With low carb cakes I don't find the traditional creaming of the butter and sweetener and adding eggs one at a time necessary. The butter does need to be soft but using eggs cold from the refrigerator is perfectly fine. I had a bit of trouble getting them out of my muffin tin but it's not a nonstick one. Make sure that you use a nonstick pan and grease it really well.

UPDATE 1/8/15: Today I made a variation of this recipe in a cake pan. I have a 6.5 x 8.5" pan that's exactly half the size of a 9 x 13" cake pan. It was just the right size for the amount of batter. I frosted the cake with Cloud Frosting. You can find the frosting recipe here. Click the photo below to see a close-up.

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