Once bitten forever smitten - How many calories in a cake?

Are you interested in the calories in your cake or do you just love to be transported to cake heaven by the softest sponge and sublime vanilla buttercream? Last week a question was posed to me on twitter - how do I work out the calories in a cake - I cannot explain in 140 characters so scroll down and all will be revealed

If you wanted to make a small sponge cake at home you would use 2 eggs, 100g sugar, 100g flour, 100g sugar and 100g butter. Sugar and flour are 100% carbohydrate which has 4 calories a gram, butter is 80% fat and fat has 9 calories a gram, (the other 20% is mostly water). Eggs are a fantastic source of protein containing all the essential amino acids but there is 5g of fat in an average yolk, with 6.5g of protein in a whole raw egg (the rest of the weight is water).

Once again to quote Jennifer - now for the science bit:

200g carbs x 4cals = 800 cals

80g fat x 9cals = 720 cals 

10g fat x 9 cals = 90 cals

13g protein x 4 cals =52 cals

Grand total = 1662

So if you divide the cake into 10 portions its166 calories per slice. For all true cake lovers that may be a bit too small and what about the filling I hear you shout at the screen. Well as an example and to make your mouth water here is another picture of a birthday cake I made this week - pure perfection - and with a strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream filling its .....

366 calories for a 90g portion

this is a picture of the cake for "Maureen" it travelled all the way to Glasgow with my best friend - her daughter - hope you guys had a great birthday weekend.

best wishes. Janet