As I was walking through the natural food section of my store, a small plastic bag filled with popped grain snack cakes caught my eye. They looked like somebody had flattened and slightly cupped rice cakes. Intrigued, I read the bag and discovered that these little treats are Korean snack cakes. Crispy, light, and tasty, one of these 5 gram snack cakes has 15 calories and 4 grams of carbohydrate. They can be part of a low-carb eating plan.

The ingredients in these taste temptations include unbleached wheat flour, rice flour, tapioca starch, white corn flour, soy lecithin, parboiled long grain brown rice, salt, and soybean oil. Stevia is used for a slight sweetness. Kim’s Magic Pop, a nutritional bargain, are perfect for spreading with your favorite sweet or savory toppings.

When you want a light dessert, top the Kim’s Magic Pop snack cakes with a sweet topping. Here are some suggestions:
Philadelphia Indulgences, strawberry cream cheese, blueberry cream cheese, honey cream cheese with sliced fruit, honey, Nutella, sliced fruit with a spritz of whipped cream, honey butter, butter with cinnamon and sugar, Laughing Cow Cinnamon spread, Laughing Cow Strawberry spread, butter and jelly.

Kim’s Magic Pop is perfect to use for savory open face sandwiches. Try these delicious ideas
Egg salad, tuna salad, ham salad, salmon salad, spinach salad, seafood salad, spinach dip, clam dip, hummus, refried beans, peanut butter, almond butter, sunflower butter, Rondele cheese spreads, salmon cream cheese, garden vegetable cream cheese, and olive-pecan cream cheese spread.

If you want a bit more bulk with your savory open face sandwiches, don’t forget your veggies! Top the spreads with chopped greens. Use baby lettuce, arugula, spinach, or shredded iceberg lettuce. Thinly slice cucumbers, summer squash, green onions, sweet onions, tomatoes or radishes. These vegetables add a fresh taste to your savory sandwich.

Kim’s Magic Pop has a couple of quirks that I need to mention. If you leave the bag open, the snack cakes can become less crunchy. However, it’s easy to solve this problem. Put the cakes directly on the oven rack and crisp in a 200 degree F. oven for 10 minutes. Pull them out, cool them, and put them in a sealed container.

When topping Kim’s Magic Pop with moist salads like, egg salad, tuna salad, or ham salad, if you prepare the open face sandwiches in advance, the snack cake can become slightly soft. It still has a bit of crunch, and it is not unpleasant. A better way to serve the open face salad sandwiches would be to put the salad in a lettuce cup on the plate. Serve the snack cakes on the side and make the sandwiches as they are going to be eaten.

Kim’s Magic Pop compares nutritionally with rice cakes which have 50 calories and 11 grams of carbohydrate in a 13 gram cake. There is a difference for me. A Magic Pop snack cake is perfect for topping with various spreads. Rice cakes have a heavier texture. I top them with butter and eat them in about six bites. Their shape doesn’t lend itself to using them for toppings. I find Kim’s Magic Cakes to be more satisfying and their slightly cupped shape easier to use for open face sandwiches.

I picked up my first bag of Kim’s Magic Pop on a whim. After using them for both sweet and savory open face sandwiches, I will definitely purchase them again. A bag of the snack cakes cost about $3.00. This works out to twenty cents apiece. That’s not bad for such a versatile low-carb way to make sandwiches.

What toppings would you use with Kim’s Magic Cakes? Please be sure to post your great ideas in the BellaOnline Sandwiches Forum. We want to see what you create!