Paging through vintage cookbooks always gives me quite the inspiration. With a combo birthday & mother’s day celebration happening at the start of June there was an inkling to find a cake recipe (or two, my sister is vegan so I usually make one for her too!). The inkling went into pie as I was also archiving a new to the collection cookbook.
First a curiosity of swapping out all purpose flour for wheat flour (seems a 50/50 or 75 wheat/25 white plus a little extra water would do the trick). Why swapping to wheat flour? Graham flour! I’m curious to see how it would present as a pie crust. Plus there will be doughnuts in the future…
From there my brand went… hmmm, I wonder which is healthier pie or cake?
Let’s do a breakdown of a pair of recipes. From 1964 Mary Meade’s Country Cookbook.
46 cake options, 38 pie options. Let’s pick a similar pair: Blueberry Cake & Blueberry Pie
Blueberry Cake, pg 92
- 1 cup blueberries / 83 calories
- 1/4 cup flour / 114 calories
- 1/4 cup butter / 407 calories
- 1 cup sugar / 773 calories
- 1 egg, beaten / 78 calories
- 1 3/4 cup flour / 796 calories
- 2 teaspoons baking powder / 4 calories
- 1/2 teaspoon salt / 0 calories
- 1/2 cup milk (whole) / 73 calories
- 1/3 cup sugar / 255 calories
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon / 6 calories
This recipe makes 8 servings.
Blueberry Pie, pg 130
- 1 quart fresh blueberries / 340 calories
- 1 cup sugar / 773 calories
- 3 tablespoons flour / 85 calories
- juice of half a lemon / 6 calories
- 2 tablespoons butter / 204 calories
+ pastry for double crust
- 2 cups flour / 910 calories
- 1 teaspoon salt / 0 calories
- 2/3 cup shortening / 1196 calories
(or 2/3 cup of lard / 1536 calories) - 1/4 cup water / 0 calories
This recipe makes 5 servings.
Adding up each calorie count for the cake and pie we arrive at 2589 total calories for the cake vs 3514 for the pie with shortening in the crust.
At 8 servings, a slice of cake will be roughly 324 calories while the pie at 5 servings will net you roughly 702 calories a slice. (Slicing the pie smaller for 8 servings puts you at 440 calories per slice.)
Note: calorie counts will always be a give or take number due to how you measure your ingredients
So in this instance, the cake is the better for you option when it comes to calories. Does that mean it’s healthier? The argument might lie in the amount of blueberries. You’re going to get more of the antioxidants blueberries from the pie with more of them present in the filling than the cake.
So blueberry cake is healthier for the amount of calories involved, pie is healthier for the amount of antioxidants you get in a slice!
How about we break down another pair? This time two classics: Lady Baltimore Cake & Shoo-Fly Pie. These aren’t related aside from being classics in the baking world, one with more class than the other. Let’s see which is the healthiest!
Lady Baltimore Cake, pg 98
- 1 cup butter / 1627 calories
- 1 1/2 cups sugar / 1161 calories
- 3 1/2 cups sifted cake flour / 1399 calories
- 4 teaspoons baking powder / 8 calories
- 1/2 teaspoon salt / 0 calories
- 1 cup milk (whole) / 146 calories
- 1 teaspoon vanilla / 12 calories
- 8 egg whites / 136 calories
- 1/2 cup sugar / 387 calories
- 1/8 teaspoon salt / 0 calories
+ boiled frosting
- 1 1/2 cups sugar / 1161 calories
- 1/2 cup water / 0 calories
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup / 31 calories
- 2 egg whites / 34 calories
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar / 2 calories
- 1/8 teaspoon salt / 0 calories
- 1 teaspoon vanilla / 12 calories
Makes 12 servings.
Shoo-Fly Pie, pg 150
- 1 1/4 cups sifted flour / 569 calories
- 1/2 cup sugar / 387 calories
- 1/4 teaspoon salt / 0 calories
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg / 6 calories
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon / 6 calories
- 1 cup molasses / 977 calories
- 1 cup cold water / 0 calories
- 1/2 teaspoon soda / 1 calorie
+ pastry shell for 9 inch pie
- 2 cups flour / 910 calories
- 1 teaspoon salt / 0 calories
- 2/3 cup shortening / 1196 calories
(or 2/3 cup of lard / 1536 calories) - 1/4 cup water / 0 calories
Makes 6 servings.
The entire Lady Baltimore Cake weighs in at a rough total of 6116 calories, while the entire Shoo-Fly Pie will net you roughly 2106 calories. Hey the Shoo-Fly is healthier in calories!
But wait… we need to break down the servings. At 12 servings, Lady Baltimore is roughly 510 calories with frosting (without frosting is 406 calories) while the Shoo-Fly pie at 6 servings is roughly 675 servings a slice!
Let’s make it even: 12 slices of pie puts you at 338 calories a slice. Or 6 slices of cake puts you at 1,019 calories per slice! Making the Lady Baltimore the lesser healthy (in the manner of calories) baked treat.
It really does seem like there isn’t a solidly clear winner in the general what’s healthier cake or pie! It really depends on what goes into each!
So have your cake & pie and eat it!
