Soaking Cakes as a Way to Modify the Texture and Create a Moist Easy to Swallow Product.

We are familiar with the jelly cake made as part of a modified texture trifle or served as a cake soaked in jelly and set overnight.

In a small environment experienced staff or carers will often use cream or ice cream with a fruit sauce or topping to mix with a soft cake to make it easy to chew and swallow particularly when a birthday comes around.

The traditional soaked cake is known as a savarin and is a yeast cake soaked in syrup with rum or kirsch added. There are many versions of this inevitably delicious item, but they take time to ‘prove’ etc. being a yeast cake. The following recipe is a semolina cake that seems to absorb syrup well, making a moist if grainy texture. Serving it with an additional fruit sauce and yogurt or cream ensures an easy to chew and swallow desert or afternoon tea treat.

Soaked Semolina Cake with Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients                                                    Serves 16

125g reduced fat table spread

¾ cup caster sugar

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1cup low fat plain yogurt (plus extra for table serving if desired)

1 .5 cups fine semolina

½ cup almond meal

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. bicarbonate of soda

Syrup

¼ cup lemon juice

1.5 cups water

¾ cup caster sugar

Blueberry Sauce

1 can blueberries (415g)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Grease and line a 20x20cm cake tin.
2. Place table spread, ¾ cup sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
3. Fold in yoghurt, semolina, almond meal, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Mix until combined.
4. Spread mixture into the prepared tin, smooth surface and bake for 25 mins until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
5. Place sugar, water and lemon juice into small saucepan. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for 10 mins to make a syrup.
6. Spoon the syrup over the hot cake and leave it in the tin to cool.
7. Place the drained blueberries in a blender with about 60mls of the syrup from the tin and blend until smooth. The product should be fairly thick.

Nutrition Information: Energy 880kJ, 4.9g protein, 6.7g fat, 1.1g sat fat, 32.8g carbohydrate, 22.6g sugars, 1.4g fibre, 144mg sodium.

Soaked Semolina Cake with blueberry sauce and yoghurt

This product is suitable for a soft, and minced and moist diet. Smooth puréed diet will require further blending of the cooked product with the sauce.

Smooth puréed Semolina Cake with blueberry sauce, topped with yoghurt

If you found these recipes useful, and want to find out more about novel recipes for Dysphagia Diets, try one my books - either A Kitchen Manual for Preparation of Modified Texture Diets (2nd Edition) or Super Foods for Small Appetites - Home Based Modified Texture Diets

Main Course Omelettes

One of the common meal requests by people in hospitals or care homes is for a simple omelette. In the hospitality industry this usually means a chef with a frying pan providing an individual service. This is not practical when many meals are served at once. However, there have been frozen omelettes available for catering. These would be suitable for soft diets but variable for minced and moist unless presented as a soft moist product not a dry texture.

The following recipe is suitable for minced and moist diets as well as smooth puréed diets. It has been written here for Kitchens as well as for people at home. The technique involves blending a vegetable with the egg yolks and folding it into the whisked egg white. The mixture is poured into a round dish as a single serve or can be poured into a large pan to be cut into squares.

The quantities suggested are 100g of vegetable for 1 egg. If the cooked blended vegetable is watery it may be an advantage to add a starchy component or as in the following example use a cheese sauce.

Cauliflower Cheese Omelette

Cauliflower Cheese Omelette

Ingredients                                                    Serves 1

2 eggs separated

200g cauliflower cheese (frozen bakes work well)

Method

      1.     If using the frozen bake cook sparingly first. Alternatively use a cauliflower cheese from the menu.

      2.     Blend the cauliflower cheese with the egg yolks until smooth.

      3.     Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form then fold in the egg mixture. 

      4.   Pour into a round baking dish and bake in the oven at 150C for 10-15 minutes or until just firm. Fold in half to present as a classic omelette. (NB May be frozen)

This photo shows the soft, moist texture, rather like a mousse.

Nutrition Information per serve: Energy 1050kJ, 19.6g protein, 15.5g fat, 5.9g sat fat, 7.1g carbohydrate, 5.1g sugars, 3.0g fibre, 383mg sodium.

For similar techniques see Sweet Potato Roulade in 'SuperFoods for Small Appetites', or Spinach and Cheese Roulade in Section 5 of 'A Kitchen Manual for Preparation of Modified Texture Diets'.  Go to
 http://www.familyconcernpublishing.com.au