Low Fat Cranberry Coffee Cake

• 1 Cup low-fat margarine or butter substitute, at room temperature
• 1 Cup sugar or Sugar Twin
• 2 eggs (or 3 egg whites)
• 2 Cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 Cup low-fat sour cream
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 standard 14-16 oz whole-berry cranberry sauce (look for lo-sugar) *
• ½ Cup chopped walnuts

GLAZE (optional)

• 1/3 Cup confectioners sugar
• 5 teaspoons water
• ½ teaspoon almond extract

* In the autumn, you can buy a couple of bags of cranberries in your local produce department and freeze them for use in the spring. This provides a fresh-fruit type of experience at Easter or during other spring celebrations. Make your own cranberry sauce by putting one bag (12-16 oz) in a pan with 1 cup of water and sugar to taste. I like to use some honey instead of sugar and add a sweet apple chunked up as well. Cook over medium high heat until most of the berries have popped and remove from heat and cool.

• Using a large mixing bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar using a pastry creamer or a fork.
• Beat eggs slightly in another bowl and add these beaten eggs to the creamed mixture and combine completely, mixing well.
• Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in another bowl and add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Mix well.
• Add sour cream a bit at a time until well mixed.
• Add almond extract and mix.
• Place 1/3 of the cake batter into a cooking-sprayed 9-in square baking pan to form Layer One.
• Top the batter with 1/3 of the cranberry sauce and spread evenly for Layer Two.
• Repeat layers One and Two, twice [a total of 6 layers].
• Sprinkle walnuts over the top.
• Bake the coffee cake at 350 degrees F for 50 - 60 minutes, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Remove coffee cake from the oven and place on cooling rack.
• OPTIONAL: For glaze, combine the glaze ingredients and drizzle over cake after it has been turned out onto a serving plate. An alternative is to drizzle a little honey over the coffee cake. Orange blossom honey is especially flavorful and a good combination with cranberries.

Cranberries grow around the Great Lakes Region of Canada and Northern USA. Centuries ago, Native Americans and First Nations (in Canada) dried cranberries to use as food during long winters in which they sometimes could catch no game animals to eat.

The Native Americans made a type of jerky out of deer meat and cranberries, mashing these two ingredients together into somethng like a cake or loaf that they called "pemmican." They also discovered that the mashed berries helped to treat arrow wounds quickly, preventing infections. They also used the red juice for dyes for their clothing and art.