Angelic, zero fat, Cupcakes

So I'm on a diet. I started before Christmas, managed to lose 1/2 a stone, but then Christmas kind of got in the way. I'm now back on the diet and have my first post Christmas weigh in tomorrow!arrgghh!

Anyway, in an attempt to be good I've been watching various programmes on Food Network with a healthy theme. My favourite is Hungry Girl, although it would seem that in the USA they have a low fat/No fat version of almost every ingredient you can think of. (You start to wonder what on earth these things are actually made from!)

I saw a programme before Christmas all about Chiffon cakes, and one type is Angel Food cake, which is pretty much the opposite of Devils food cake. It has NO butter or oil and only the whites of eggs, meaning its actually fat free! (It still has a fair amount of sugar though!)
Anyway, I figured I could adapt it for some cupcakes and here is how it turned out.



Recipe
8 medium Egg whites (6 large)
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
45g icing sugar
90g flour
150g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon zest

1. Mix egg whites until they are softly foaming and then add salt and cream of tartar and whisk to medium peaks.
2. Add sifted icing sugar to the egg whites and then whisk to stiff peaks.
3. Double sift the flour and sugar and then fold into the egg whites along with the vanilla and lemon zest.
4. Using a piping bag, fill muffin tins 2/3 full. (DO NOT GREASE OR USE CAKE CASES)
5. Bake in 180 degree C oven for 18 minutes, or until golden and spring back to touch.
6. Allow to cool UPSIDE DOWN (I used some ramekin dishes to balance my trays on).This stops collapse!
7. Use palette knife to remove the cakes gently from the tin.
This recipe made 16 cupcakes for me.
At this stage you can do whatever you want with them. They work out at 85 calories and zero fat!

Most people serve Angel cake with fresh whipped cream and fruit, but I decided to make some Swiss Meringue Frosting. Its basically meringue, but the egg whites are whisked with sugar and syrup over a bain marie so it doesn't have to be cooked in the oven.

Recipe
30ml water (2 tbsp)
1 tbsp golden syrup (corn syrup)
3/4 cup sugar (180g)
4 medium egg whites (3 large)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Add water, sugar, syrup and egg whites to heat proof mixing bowl. Whisk gently over a simmering bain marie . When the sugar has dissolved into the mixture its ready for beating (approx 2 minutes, rub a bit of the mixture between your fingers to check for grains of sugar).
2. Remove from heat and whisk on high to stiff peaks. It will take about 6-9 minutes to finish, and the bowl will be cool.
3. Pipe onto the cupcakes
4. Any extra you can pop onto a lined baking tray, pop into the oven, 140 degrees C, for 35 minutes, then turn the oven off and leave them in till the oven cools and you have some lovely meringues!

Now I'm terrible at hoarding stuff, and I can't throw anything away, so what, you may be asking, did I do with 12 egg yolks. I couldn't possibly throw them away, so I made lemon curd with 8 of them, and added the last 4 to some mashed potato which went on top of a chicken pie tonight (my mash was minus the yolks, don't panic!). I'll post the lemon curd recipe another time, but its really easy, and an excellent way to use the extra yolks, and makes gorgeous mini lemon tarts!