The reader: Don Milburn, 66, electrical utility construction consultant, Great Falls, Virginia

The recipe: Sour Cream Pound Cake with Rum Glaze

The story: Don loves to cook and has always enjoyed the recipe for this cake, given to him by his mother. But he came to us for help because "all the old-time recipes never considered calories or fat content."

The dilemma: This cake was indeed heavy, weighed down by 2 1/2 sticks of butter and a cup of sour cream.

The solution: We didn't want to lose any lushness in the cake, so we only slightly decreased the amount of butter from 1 cup to 3/4 cup—cutting about 30 calories and 3 grams of fat from each slice. Switching to fat-free sour cream removed another 3 grams of fat from each serving. Using only 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter instead of 4 tablespoons for the glaze shaved almost 2 grams of fat per serving. To replace flavor lost in the glaze, we switched from granulated sugar to brown sugar, which has a rich, full caramel-like flavor.

The feedback: Don enjoyed our version so much that he made it for a family celebration. He didn't tell anyone in the family that it was a light adaptation, and "no one knew there was a difference."

Before | After

Serving size
1 slice | 1 slice

Calories per serving
427 | 325

Fat
19.4g | 11g

Percent of total calories
41 percent | 30 percent

To the Rescue. Do you have a favorite recipe that needs a healthy makeover? Maybe we can lighten it up. Send it to us, along with your reasons for wanting a healthier version and any interesting stories or traditions about the recipe. Include your name, address, and daytime phone number with the recipe, and send it to CL_Web@timeinc.com with "Lighten Up" in the subject line. We can't lighten every recipe we receive, but if we adapt yours, we'll send you a Cooking Light cookbook. We reserve the right to edit all recipes. All recipes submitted become the property of Cooking Light and may be republished and used for any purpose.