Hi All,
My mum makes our fruit cake and pudding every year and normally uses butter. She says that she uses 1lb butter to 10 eggs ,1 lb flour, 3 ½ lb fruit.
Now that my dad is recovering from a heart attack, she wants to try to make it healthier by using something other than butter.
If she used the low-cholesterol margerines out there, would they break down into trans-fats or could she use them and be healthy?
Or instead, could she use olive oil or canola oil?
Or is there something else that she could use that would be healthy and work better?
My dad adores both pudding and fruit cake and wolfs it down when he gets the chance, but we really want it healthier for him now.

Thanks in advance for any help!
Cheers!

The fruit cakes don't depend on butter for their structure, so you could probably substitute margarine, just pick one that is labeled no trans fats. I will have more water than the butter, but it should still hold up in the heavier cake that fruitcake typically becomes.

After replacing the butter, what are you going to replace the eggs with?.

Mike

I use Earth Balance in my specialty baked goods (for diabetics and people with food allergies) and it works great.

You can cut down on the butter, but still use it.

I go to www.cookinglight.com for amazing recipes from their magazine. Here's one for fruitcake and plum pudding tartlets, just a twist on the British version....

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1120291

http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?
action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1673127

How about baking and cooking something lighter for him?
Also olive oil and canola oil are not interchangeable. Olive oil is an excellent and health oil. Very good for you dad.
Canola oil is not.

good for you and your mom for trying to make healthier choices for your dad! my first thoughts were maybe he can just enjoy a smaller piece of fruitcake instead of changing the recipe? of course, that's easier said than done as self-control is something 99% of people have not yet mastered...

She asked for healthy substitutes -

My father has been on a pritikin diet ever since I can remember. He eats so healthily it is amazing. He also does 3 hours of DAILY exercise.
His only splurge is fruit cake and pudding ONCE a year at christmas time.
I do NOT think it is a problem for him to have more than 1 slice in his circumstances.
Thank you to those who actually answered the question that I posted.
As far as the reason he has had a heart attack, it was simple bad luck and bad genes.

Well, Curvy, you could have mentioned the fact that your dad eats healthy 99% of the time.
Kudos to your Pop for keeping his diet!