US cake recipes, why are they always too sweet?

[ratcreature]

I made some this upside down apple cake, and I already reduced the sugar by a third in the cake (and put no sugar in the whipped cream), yet in combination it was still so sweet as to be almost inedible. This always happens to me with US cake recipes. Are other people having this problem? In principle I like sweet things, and the cake recipes that came with my mixer for example I make without reducing the sugar, so it's not like I'm against a sugary taste, but whenever I try a recipe from an US blog, things turn out too sweet. I guess I should bake more often to get a better feel for tolerable sugar amounts so I don't have to depend on the recipes.

Comments

[kass]

I think this also becomes a class and income issue, too -- generally speaking, the cheapest groceries here in the States are the ones sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. So if one is on a low income, the foods one can afford tend to be the sweeter ones. Which is fucked-up, but there it is. :P