Birthday Cake!!!
Happy Birthday to Me. Happy Birthday to me. La de da da de da da. Happy Birthday to me.
Is now 29 years old. I'm an old fart dating a hot 24 year old, so I can't complain too much. =)
Anyway, the older I get, the more of a health nut I get. Especially since I'd been really sick earlier in the year, nutrition and healthful food is important to me. But, unfortunately, I have a sweet tooth (Eeeek!!!). So, for my 29th year I gave myself a Birthday Challenge: MAKE A HEALTHY BIRTHDAY CAKE. And, after some experiments gone disgustingly bad, I think I've come up with a recipie that isn't half bad. The texture is a bit different than a regular cake, but it has HALF the calories, whole grain, anti-oxidants, low fat, low sugar, and no-refined sugar in it and it actually tastes pretty good. It's nutritionally dense, and diabetic safe (if you care about that).
Refined sugars are bad for you because they have no nutrients in them, and in order for your body to digest them it has to pull nutrients out of your organs or bones!!! So, it ends up being FAT FAT FAT. Non-refined sugars have nutrients and enzymes that are naturally occuring with the sugar that help your body digest them. Non-refined sugars can still have a high glycemic index (spikes your blood sugars and burdens your pancreas) but at least they're not depleating your bones.
So, I made a recipie that is low fat, and replaces the refined sugar with Stevia and Agave nectar. Stevia is a leaf fiber that tastes much more sweet than sugar, but has no calories, and provides your intestines with inulin fiber that feeds healthy bacteria and inhibits bad bacteria in your gut. Agave nectar is an unrefined sugar nectar that is grown and harvested in Mexico and used to make tequilla. It comes from a cactus. It has an incredibly low glycemic index (which means it's safe for diabetics and won't turn you into a diabetic) it has it's natural nutrients, AND it is 4x sweeter than regualr white sugar, so to attain the same sweetness you use only 1/4 the Agave nectar and hence reduce the calories from sugar by 75%. The reason I use both Stevia and Agave Nectar, instead of just Stevia which is calorie free, is that Stevia can have a bit of a bitter taste if you get too much of it at once. So I replace half of the sugar with Stevia, and half of it with Agave nectar.
Note that I chose not to use artificial sweetners like Splenda, or Aspartame. Though I think Splenda is probably safe in small quantities (enough to sweeten your morning cofee or tea) it is, in fact, a freaky weird laboratory created, organic abomination that is probably not healthy for you to be sucking down in large quantities. I used to use splenda all the time, but after a while it started to make me kinda sick, then I did some reasearch and found out that the "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar" stuff was a bunch of B.S. They make it from sugar, but they could also probably make it from a lump of coal. So, for my purposes, the artificial stuff will be avoided (Stevia is completely natural, and even good for you, try it instead if you use splenda. You'll find stevia with the dietary supplements instead of the sweeteners thanks to political manuvering of the artificial sweetner industry.).
So here is the cake recipie.
Richard’s Healthy Chocolate Cake Recipe
Whole grain, low-fat, no cholesterol, anti-oxidants, low sugar, and no refined sugars.
2 Cups 100% Whole Wheat pastry flour: (880 calories, 4g Fat, 0mg Cholseterol)
¼ Cup Agave Nectar (240 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
4 Table spoon Stevia “Sweet Leaf, Stevia Plus”, or enough to be equivalent to 1Cup Sugar. (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
¾ Cup Unsweetend Dark Cocoa: (240 Calories 0g Fat).
2 teaspoons baking soda (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
1 teaspoon baking powder (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
½ teaspoon of salt (0 Calories, 0g Fat).
8 teaspoons “Deb El, ‘Just Whites’” powdered egg whites. (Or use 4 egg whites and remove ½ Cup of fluid from green tea). (48 Calories. 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
1 ½ Cup Cold lightly brewed Green Tea. (0 Calories, 0g Fat)
1 Cup Skim Milk (90 Calories, 0g Fat, 5mg Cholesterol)
2 Table Spoons “Smart Balance” cooking oil with high Omega-3s’ (240 Calories, 28gFat, 0mg Cholesterol)
¾ Cup of Unsweetened apple sauce (75 Calories, 0g Fat)
¾ Cup of unsweetened Lowfat Yogurt. (90 Calories, 1.5gFat)
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar. (0 Calories, 0g Fat)
Note Dark Chocolate actually has benificial anti-oxidants (chemicals like vitamin C) in it, as does green tea. So, this adds some nutrients to our guilt-free cake.
Calorie Total: 1903 Calories
Fat Total: 33.5 g Fat.
If Serving is 1/12: Per Serving: 159 Calories, 2.8g of Fat.
Compare to regular dark chocolate cake: 321 Calories, 11.2g of Fat.
Half the calories, and almost ¼ the fat.
Mix wet ingredients together. Slowly add Stevia powder while mixing.
In separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix dry and wet. Use mix-master good’ol long time till it’s all whipped up and cake-like.
Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F. Greese 9x13 inch pan, Cook 28-30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, will easily burn as will all low fat cakes.
For two round cake pans, cook about 25-28 minutes in the oven. Again, keep an eye on it.
Now for frosting.
NO FROSTING IS HEALTHY!!! Period. After much experimentation, and failures, I’ve found that it simply isn’t possible to make a low fat, low sugar, no refined sugar frosting that doesn’t end up with an absolutely disgusting texture. So, if you really care, don’t frost it. However, below is a not-too-unhealthy frosting you can make.
Fluffy Honey Frosting. Raw honey actually has enzymes and nutrients in it. Even though it’s sugar, and doesn’t have the best glycemic index, raw honey is not empty calories like granulated white sugar. So, it’s not as bad for you.
1 cup Honey
2 egg whites
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Whip the egg whites, salt, and vanilla, with electric beater till you get fluffy egg white stuff…. Or until you have stiff peaks, whatever you call it.
On low to medium heat, boil the honey, stirring so it doesn’t burn, in a small sauce pan. When it’s nice’en boily-goey-bubbly slowly pour the hot honey into the egg white fluff as you continue to beat the egg whites with your electric mixer. The hot honey cooks the egg whites, you end up with a fluffy frosting that you can spread all over your cake. Mmmmm…. Is gooey yummy.
If you use the entire batch of frosting on your cake, you’ll add the following to the cake calorie totals.
Calories: 984, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol.
So one serving (1/12 of this batch) is 82 Calories, 0g Fat, 0g Cholesterol.
Compare to a betty crocker frosting mix with 140 Calories and 8g of Fat.
So, for 1 serving, 1/12 of the Frosted Cake, you have: 241 Calories, and 2.8g of Fat, virtually no Cholesterol.
Compare to regular frosted cake of this kind: 461 Calories, 19.2g of Fat.
Is now 29 years old. I'm an old fart dating a hot 24 year old, so I can't complain too much. =)
Anyway, the older I get, the more of a health nut I get. Especially since I'd been really sick earlier in the year, nutrition and healthful food is important to me. But, unfortunately, I have a sweet tooth (Eeeek!!!). So, for my 29th year I gave myself a Birthday Challenge: MAKE A HEALTHY BIRTHDAY CAKE. And, after some experiments gone disgustingly bad, I think I've come up with a recipie that isn't half bad. The texture is a bit different than a regular cake, but it has HALF the calories, whole grain, anti-oxidants, low fat, low sugar, and no-refined sugar in it and it actually tastes pretty good. It's nutritionally dense, and diabetic safe (if you care about that).
Refined sugars are bad for you because they have no nutrients in them, and in order for your body to digest them it has to pull nutrients out of your organs or bones!!! So, it ends up being FAT FAT FAT. Non-refined sugars have nutrients and enzymes that are naturally occuring with the sugar that help your body digest them. Non-refined sugars can still have a high glycemic index (spikes your blood sugars and burdens your pancreas) but at least they're not depleating your bones.
So, I made a recipie that is low fat, and replaces the refined sugar with Stevia and Agave nectar. Stevia is a leaf fiber that tastes much more sweet than sugar, but has no calories, and provides your intestines with inulin fiber that feeds healthy bacteria and inhibits bad bacteria in your gut. Agave nectar is an unrefined sugar nectar that is grown and harvested in Mexico and used to make tequilla. It comes from a cactus. It has an incredibly low glycemic index (which means it's safe for diabetics and won't turn you into a diabetic) it has it's natural nutrients, AND it is 4x sweeter than regualr white sugar, so to attain the same sweetness you use only 1/4 the Agave nectar and hence reduce the calories from sugar by 75%. The reason I use both Stevia and Agave Nectar, instead of just Stevia which is calorie free, is that Stevia can have a bit of a bitter taste if you get too much of it at once. So I replace half of the sugar with Stevia, and half of it with Agave nectar.
Note that I chose not to use artificial sweetners like Splenda, or Aspartame. Though I think Splenda is probably safe in small quantities (enough to sweeten your morning cofee or tea) it is, in fact, a freaky weird laboratory created, organic abomination that is probably not healthy for you to be sucking down in large quantities. I used to use splenda all the time, but after a while it started to make me kinda sick, then I did some reasearch and found out that the "made from sugar so it tastes like sugar" stuff was a bunch of B.S. They make it from sugar, but they could also probably make it from a lump of coal. So, for my purposes, the artificial stuff will be avoided (Stevia is completely natural, and even good for you, try it instead if you use splenda. You'll find stevia with the dietary supplements instead of the sweeteners thanks to political manuvering of the artificial sweetner industry.).
So here is the cake recipie.
Richard’s Healthy Chocolate Cake Recipe
Whole grain, low-fat, no cholesterol, anti-oxidants, low sugar, and no refined sugars.
2 Cups 100% Whole Wheat pastry flour: (880 calories, 4g Fat, 0mg Cholseterol)
¼ Cup Agave Nectar (240 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
4 Table spoon Stevia “Sweet Leaf, Stevia Plus”, or enough to be equivalent to 1Cup Sugar. (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
¾ Cup Unsweetend Dark Cocoa: (240 Calories 0g Fat).
2 teaspoons baking soda (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
1 teaspoon baking powder (0 Calories, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
½ teaspoon of salt (0 Calories, 0g Fat).
8 teaspoons “Deb El, ‘Just Whites’” powdered egg whites. (Or use 4 egg whites and remove ½ Cup of fluid from green tea). (48 Calories. 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol)
1 ½ Cup Cold lightly brewed Green Tea. (0 Calories, 0g Fat)
1 Cup Skim Milk (90 Calories, 0g Fat, 5mg Cholesterol)
2 Table Spoons “Smart Balance” cooking oil with high Omega-3s’ (240 Calories, 28gFat, 0mg Cholesterol)
¾ Cup of Unsweetened apple sauce (75 Calories, 0g Fat)
¾ Cup of unsweetened Lowfat Yogurt. (90 Calories, 1.5gFat)
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar. (0 Calories, 0g Fat)
Note Dark Chocolate actually has benificial anti-oxidants (chemicals like vitamin C) in it, as does green tea. So, this adds some nutrients to our guilt-free cake.
Calorie Total: 1903 Calories
Fat Total: 33.5 g Fat.
If Serving is 1/12: Per Serving: 159 Calories, 2.8g of Fat.
Compare to regular dark chocolate cake: 321 Calories, 11.2g of Fat.
Half the calories, and almost ¼ the fat.
Mix wet ingredients together. Slowly add Stevia powder while mixing.
In separate bowl mix dry ingredients. Mix dry and wet. Use mix-master good’ol long time till it’s all whipped up and cake-like.
Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F. Greese 9x13 inch pan, Cook 28-30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, will easily burn as will all low fat cakes.
For two round cake pans, cook about 25-28 minutes in the oven. Again, keep an eye on it.
Now for frosting.
NO FROSTING IS HEALTHY!!! Period. After much experimentation, and failures, I’ve found that it simply isn’t possible to make a low fat, low sugar, no refined sugar frosting that doesn’t end up with an absolutely disgusting texture. So, if you really care, don’t frost it. However, below is a not-too-unhealthy frosting you can make.
Fluffy Honey Frosting. Raw honey actually has enzymes and nutrients in it. Even though it’s sugar, and doesn’t have the best glycemic index, raw honey is not empty calories like granulated white sugar. So, it’s not as bad for you.
1 cup Honey
2 egg whites
¼ teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla.
Whip the egg whites, salt, and vanilla, with electric beater till you get fluffy egg white stuff…. Or until you have stiff peaks, whatever you call it.
On low to medium heat, boil the honey, stirring so it doesn’t burn, in a small sauce pan. When it’s nice’en boily-goey-bubbly slowly pour the hot honey into the egg white fluff as you continue to beat the egg whites with your electric mixer. The hot honey cooks the egg whites, you end up with a fluffy frosting that you can spread all over your cake. Mmmmm…. Is gooey yummy.
If you use the entire batch of frosting on your cake, you’ll add the following to the cake calorie totals.
Calories: 984, 0g Fat, 0mg Cholesterol.
So one serving (1/12 of this batch) is 82 Calories, 0g Fat, 0g Cholesterol.
Compare to a betty crocker frosting mix with 140 Calories and 8g of Fat.
So, for 1 serving, 1/12 of the Frosted Cake, you have: 241 Calories, and 2.8g of Fat, virtually no Cholesterol.
Compare to regular frosted cake of this kind: 461 Calories, 19.2g of Fat.