Linda, thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep it on file. My SO surprised me and went shopping. He returned with 3 bags of wheat bran...said he didn't know how much I needed! He's a keeper!

Cake mixing methods: -Shortened cakes utilize solid shortening (fat/sugar creaming method). -Unshortened cakes (sponge or foam cakes) are made with beaten egg whites for air/leavening. -Chiffon cakes are a hybrid of shortened and unshortened cakes where the fat is usually from vegetable oil and egg yolks and is combined with the foamed egg whites, cake flour, and leavening agents. In cakes, solid fats contribute to tenderness, volume, moisture, and flavor. These attributes are distinctly associated with solid fats because vegetable oil doesn't entrap air during creaming. Using vegetable oil where butter is called for will result in decreased volume and a "harsh" crumb. As with all cooking/baking rules, there is ALWAYS some exception, and this exception is olive oil, because it contains natural emulsifiers to make cakes more tender and moist. You may have better luck using a light olive oil. Vegetable oil coats the flour proteins preventing them from adhearing to water. This reduces the gluten formation and leaves more water in the batter (gluten absorbs hydration). So if you use oil in a recipe that calls for butter, I wouldn't use it 1:1. I'd use less oil. The key... not to add too much oil or the cake becomes too heavy and compact (I'm thinking of my MILs OILY 5-pound pumpkin bread recipe LOL - while my favorite banana bread recipe only uses 3 T. of oil - but I digress). Air bubbles aren't easily incorporated into oil as they are butter. You are now stuck with only the leavening agent remaining to create air bubbles by using oil instead of butter - the chemical leaveners (soda/baking powder) - OR - physical leavening from whipping air into the batter (via egg whites). So if you substitute oil for butter, you may want to whip the egg whites and add them to the batter to aid in adding air bubbles to the batter. When making muffins, the traditional muffin-making method the steps are geared to minimize mixing so that you don't develop gluten. In traditional muffins, the fat is most often in liquid form - both melted solid fats or liquid fats (cooking oil). This is mixed with the other wet ingredients and then added all at once to the dry ingredients. In a muffin recipe where the fat is solid and you use traditional cake methods - creaming the fat with the sugar - the resulting muffin will have a more cake-like texture. HOW fat is incorporated will create different textures, and all the time the fat plays a BIG roll in minimizing gluten development. You can also aid gluten development up front by using low-gluten flours - something lower in gluten than all-purpose flour - a southern all-purpose like White Lily or Martha White will make the crumb more tender than all-purpose flour. To off-set the additional gluten in all-purpose flour (say if you use a higher-gluten all-purpose flour like King Arthur or Hudson Cream - a Kansas brand of flour) is to add a little more fat so you don't get a tough crumb. How much you beat the batter will also alter the texture. I NEVER use an electric mixer when adding the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. I use a Danish Dough Whisk. Keep the mixer for creaming fat/sugar. Different mixing methods will get your different kinds of cakes. What you are trying to get done is to incorporate all the ingredients as well as the maximum number of air cells - which you need for vulume and texture. Some pitfalls...the temperature of the butter, eggs, and the mixing bowl; insufficient creaming; insufficient blending of the baking powder and flour; developing too much gluten/using flour that is too high in gluten.... Cake is a ratio of ingredients one to another, mess with the ratio by altering one or two ingredients and you have to adjust it someplace else to compensate. If you are working with "high-ratio" cakes that contain more sugar than flour, then you have a whole different set of "rules" to consider. In her book, "Baking 9-1-1", Sarah Phillips mentions making a cake recipe over 100 times until she made a reduced-fat version of it she was satisfied with. -Grainlady

Yes, apple sauce or yogurt Applesauce Applesauce is an accessible and affordable substitute for oil in quick breads. If your recipe calls for a solid fat, like butter or vegetable shortening, use half as much applesauce. Replace liquid oil with three-fourths the amount of applesauce. Opt for an unsweetened, all-natural applesauce as a fat substitute. Applesauce works well in fairly dense, strongly flavored quick breads or muffins, as well as in chocolate baked goods. Yogurt Nonfat yogurt can replace vegetable shortening, butter, oil, or sour cream in quick bread recipes. Yogurt adds moistness and an appealing tang to the finished bread. If you're replacing sour cream, use yogurt to replace all of the sour cream. Try replacing half of the butter with half as much yogurt or half of the oil with three-quarters as much yogurt for low-fat banana, cranberry or zucchini bread that doesn't sacrifice flavor or texture.

agmss15 - what you wrote ties in with what I just found on this site: https://www.leaf.tv/articles/can-you-substitute-peanut-butter-for-butter-in-baking/ "Substituting Peanut Butter for Butter Unlike other fats and oils, butter, depending on the style and salt content, is at least 80 percent fat, with milk solids and water making up the remaining 20 percent; on the other hand, peanut butter is only 50 percent fat. It contains 25 percent protein, fiber and other carbohydrates in addition to fat. To effectively substitute peanut butter for butter in a recipe, first combine equal parts creamy peanut butter and oil; use the mixture cup for cup as you would use butter in cakes, muffins, cookies, brownies or quick breads." Thanks! I'll go ahead and do it, but I think I'll use canola rather than coconut oil.