Let Them Eat Cake: 140 Sinfully Rich Desserts-With a Fraction of the Fat [Hardcover]

Susan Gold Purdy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1997

With the latest and last word on fat- and cholesterol-reducing baking, Purdy offers a second innovative collection of dazzling desserts that will pass any taste test. No one will ever guess these winners are low in fat because they are so high in flavor and style. Purdy's recipes are clearly written, easy to follow, and include a nutritional analysis as well as notes on advance preparation. A Light Touch section with each recipe details her fat reduction technique and compares the low-fat recipe to a classic high-fat version. Look for helpful advice on equipment and pan substitutions as well as the full skinny on ingredients and how they relate to successful low-fat baking. A special index of selected recipes will appeal to cooks seeking treats for kids, gifts from the kitchen, seasonal holiday specialties, or desserts that are cholesterol free, lactose free, lower in sugar, and/or gluten free.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Skillfully combining butter and eggs with ingredients like light cream cheese, low-fat sour cream, and skim milk, Susan Purdy's Let Them Eat Cake offers every imaginable tempting dessert in recipes that produce luscious results, but with reduced fat and cholesterol. Purdy uses only natural ingredients, no egg substitutes or artificial sweeteners. Purdy's mastery is demonstrated through her advice on reducing the fat in your favorite dessert recipes and the notes accompanying each recipe that explain how she cut the fat compared with traditional versions. Recipes make up the bulk of this book, but the sections on ingredients, quick fixes, and understanding the labels on foods are equally valuable.

From Library Journal

Talented baker Purdy (A Piece of Cake, LJ 8/89) is the author of another low-fat dessert book, Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too (Morrow, 1993). Unlike Have Your Cake, her new book includes all sorts of desserts: Glazed Ginger Tartlets, Mississippi Mud Pie, and more. Each recipe includes a section explaining exactly how Purdy lowered the fat from the prototype. Although a few have close to 30 percent calories from fat, or even slightly more, most have far less. Despite Americans' obsession with fat, many of us would rather have just a small piece of one of Purdy's indulgent full-fat desserts than a generous wedge of one of her newer low-fat creations. However, for those seeking recipes for low-fat sweets, this collection is one of the best.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 389 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (January 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688140394
• ISBN-13: 978-0688140397
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,314,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No one will guess these excellent desserts are low-fat!, April 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Let Them Eat Cake: 140 Sinfully Rich Desserts-With a Fraction of the Fat (Hardcover)

This is a great cookbook for people who love to eat desserts guilt-free. Susan Purdy does an excellent job of turning traditional favorities (like brownies) into low-fat treats. She uses rich ingredients (like dutch-process cocoa) in smaller quantities to provide flavor and low-fat ingredients (like low-fat cream cheese) to cut fat and calories. She gives a complete breakdown of the fat and calorie content at the end of each receipe. The recipes are written step-by-step and there are some pictures. Most of the recipes make a couple dozen cookies or an 8-in square pan. If I had one complaint it would be that the receipes call for a lot of very specific ingredients (for example, you are advised against substituting low-fat cream cheese and Neufatchel cream cheese). However, everyone I've shared these recipes with can't believe they are low fat.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yummy, Yet Good for You, February 2, 2001

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Let Them Eat Cake: 140 Sinfully Rich Desserts-With a Fraction of the Fat (Hardcover)

Just reading the Table of Contents may make your mouth water: Luscious Lemon Squares, Strawberry-Rhubarb Cobbler, Key Lime Pie, Southern Sweet Potato Pie, Pear-Prune-Brandy Cake, sauces, toppings, and more! Susan G. Purdy (former student at "Le Cordon Bleu" and "L'Ecole de Cuisine la Varennes" in Paris) is a master chef, whose previous book, "Let Them Eat Cake" won the Julia Child Award. Her number one criterion for these low-fat goodies is taste: "The recipes must stand on their own and taste wonderful, not `okay' because they are low fat."

It's an easy yet complete guide to making low-fat sweets, with cooking tips on almost every page, enumerated instructions for each recipe, and notes on advance preparation, special equipment, and time requirements.

Her recipe for the delicious and usually cholesterol-heavy Tiramasu is a wonder. Per serving, it has 341 calories (compared to 600 for her favorite non low-fat recipe), 7.8 g of fat (compared to 37 g), and 92 mg of cholesterol (compared to 243mg). Her lemon meringue recipe has half the fat and one-sixth the cholesterol of the usual by using non-fat butter, no egg yolks, and other healthy substitutions. There is a long, excellent chapter on nutrition and cooking, a list of recipes by dietary requirement (e.g., fat-free, lactose-free, reduced-sugar) and occasion (children; holidays). She includes also a humorous 4-pagesection called "quick-fix cover-up tricks" when recipes don't go as expected.

This is a fun, thorough, and delicious set of recipes. Ms. Purdy talks about the importance of reducing fat and cholesterol but never sounds preachy. There's a guide to USDA food labels (for example, she explains the meaning of "fat-free" on a label), a list of mail order suppliers, a bibliography, index, and some beautiful color pictures within the book's 389 pages. An excellent book: Highly recommended!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GLUTEN-FREE & LACTOSE-FREE RECIPES GALORE!, September 5, 2005

By 

Lover of Classics "Lover of Classics" (Alexandria, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Let Them Eat Cake: 140 Sinfully Rich Desserts-With a Fraction of the Fat (Hardcover)

AT LAST! She has an exceptional index of tons of fabulous main-stream baking recipes for those of us who suffer from Celiac Disease (can't eat anything made with wheat/rye/oats/barley). You've NO idea how difficult it is to bake without wheat flour! While this is certainly not the main theme of these marvelously decadently rich recipes, it's very sensitive of this author to include an index of her recipes for us. Fantastic for Celiac kids who miss out on so many desert goodies. And for the rest of us "big" kids who never outgrow our longing for great deserts! Also, don't miss the index on Lactose-intolerance recipes. THANK YOU SUSAN PURDY!