Modest Success, or No Success at All?

I've been kind of wanting to make red velvet cake. I've looked at some 'regular' recipes, but decided at length to try this reduced fat and calorie version from Bobby Deen's show, "Not My Momma's Meals". (I really like this show, in which Bobby produces healthier versions of his mom's classics, with her full approval. It's fun.)

The only huge change I made to the recipe was that I decided to make a sheet cake instead of cupcakes. Other than that, I followed the recipe to the best of my ability, and encountered no real problems.  The biggest difference in this recipe from most is that the batter gets its color (and, I assume, some of its sweetness) from roasted beets rather than food coloring..  (It seems to me that I've red that the earliest red velvet cake recipes used beets.) The frosting also uses a reduced fat cream cheese and less sugar than would be typical.


The results were quite good, though not great. I do taste beet, but I'm not sure I would if I wasn't looking for it, and it's a bad thing anyway. I did find the frosting to be goopier than I expected, so I think it'll be a challenge to transport.

The mixed feelings hinted at in this post's title come from my realization as I ate my piece of cake that I'd worked all afternoon (much of it on another baking project I'll write up in due course) and didn't really have any "real" food prepared for the week to come.  I was exhausted, and what I had to show for it was 90 square inches of cake that I shouldn't eat much of - a disappointing outcome from that respect.

I think perhaps I've gotten off course a little bit -- the amount of time and effort to make this cake was a distraction from my main goal of making myself tasty and nutritious food for my life. I just need, when planning future projects, to make sure they leave me with enough time and energy to make 'real food' as well.

As I planned, I'll be taking the bulk of my cake to work. And my refrigerator is not devoid of things I can eat - I made a frittata tonight that turned out pretty well. (Yum.)