Calling the bakers - substituting wheat flour?

[anamika]

I'm planning to bake DH a lemon pound cake for his b'day and the recipe calls for 2.5 cups of flour. How of this can I substitute with whole wheat flour? Or is that not recommended in this case?
Also, it calls for oil? Can I substitute applesauce? I do want it to taste good (it is his b'day after all :)), so which of the two substitutions affects the taste less?
TIA for any help,

[brittone2]

Cakes can be tricky because it may change the texture and how high the cake rises.

I sub almost half whole wheat pastry flour into my carrot cake recipe (just made this recently so it came to mind) but that has a more earthy, less delicate flavor than pound cake, kwim?

You usually sub pretty equally. Can you do a trial run with 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour/1/2 regular flour and maybe try the oil sub with applesauce (that usually works fine for me, but again, since it is for something special, maybe you'll want to be cautious ;) ) in advance?

I'm really no help ;) I'm more apt to make substitutions if it is not for something particularly special...I seem to get burned when I try to make a healthy substitution and I don't have time to come up with a backup plan, kwim?

[anamika]

Thanks, Beth. I'm one of those chronic last-minuters so no time to experiment. Plus it is going to be a surprise. I just followed the recipe and it came out great.
I substitute things with abandon while cooking but I'm not an intuitive baker. I'm in awe of people who eyeball the flour etc while baking.
Thanks again,

[brittone2]

Glad it all went well. I hate when I invest all that time and something turns out not-so-great. Usually substituting things goes fine for me, unless of course I actually really need something to come out well, and then it inevitably flops ;)

I'm sure it will be deeelish :) Enjoy!!