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

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

The last time I baked an upside-down cake from scratch, I was working at a homeless shelter near downtown and I set the cakes on the back stairs landing to cool. It was spring, but there was still snow on the ground so I knew it wouldn't take long. When I went back to retrieve them, there stood a squirrel- right in one of my pans. He had started eating from the center out and was standing in the space he had already consumed.

I had never noticed any difference between urban squirrels and suburban squirrels before, but instead of racing away, startled when I swung open the door, this squirrel simply looked up, a chunk nof cake in each paw, his chewing cheeks bulging, and he looked at me unimpressed as if to say, "Whatta YOU looking at?"

Needless to say, I gave him his privacy and got started making a second cake.

[ratcreature]

Was it a gray one? Gray squirrels can be an aggressive menace. Here the red squirrel is native and those are more timid.

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

No. Here, in central New York, we actually have black and gray. It was a black one.

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I thought black squirrels were just a dark variety of the gray squirrel? at least, in my part of the US they are (our population is mostly Eastern Grey Squirrels. Those sumbitches are mean.)

LOL

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

Please tell me you looked that up on Wikipedia and are not just some knower of random squirrel breed knowledge!

Re: LOL

[jacquez.livejournal.com]

I...actually didn't look it up. But I plead "amateur local naturalist type", in my defense! I can also run down a fairly long list of invasive plants in western Pennsylvania and do you up a pretty good number on native species of the Allegheny plateau...

Re: LOL

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's impressive. We had some tough squirrels when I lived in Rochester. There was one who used to attack my recyclables and the front porch was right outside my window so I'd hear him out there showing the empties who was boss.

I saw more wild life wandering that city. One night after playing music, we brought band stuff back to our drummer's house and there was a deer wandering around their neighborhood. We had to call the cops. I had to leave before they came, but I called the next day to make sure they hadn't shot it or anything.

The officer on the line said, "We try not to discharge fiearms in residential areas after dark when ever we can avoid it, ma'am."