Healthier Baking

My mom was gone for three days on a business trip, which meant I had the kitchen all to myself. Being bored, I decided to buy some baking gadgets to try some home-baking. I've said before that I have a sweet tooth, so I thought home-baking can help my cake cravings in a healthier way.

What I have done is to find recipes online and arrange them my way, usually with healthier options. Today, I want to tell you about a healthier cake I made and show you pictures of some others. Of course, they are cakes, so they aren't totally healthy - but I'm sure it's healthier than the beautiful ones I am always tempted to buy when I go to department stores or pastry shops.

Dark Chocolate Banana Bread

This was actually really easy to make and delicious. I followed the recipe from Buzzfeed.

Ingredients are pretty much the same, but I modified it a little bit: 3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

½ cup 2% plain greek yogurt

some honey

few drops of vanilla FlavDrop from MyProtein.com

10g baking powder

1 cup flour

½ cup dark cocoa powder

chocolate chunks as preferred

It's really difficult to get wholewheat flour and baking soda in Japan, so I used regular flour and baking powder instead.

Preparation is pretty much the same, too: 1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C.

2. In a medium bowl, mash bananas. Mix eggs, yogurt, honey, vanilla FlavDrop and baking powder into mixture.

3. Add flour, dark cocoa powder and mix.

4. Add chocolate chunks and gently fold into mixture.

5. Pour the batter into a greased 9x5-inch bread pan. Bake for about 45 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle of the bread. (Baking times may vary, so keep an eye on the bread.)

6. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving!

What makes this healthier:

Well, since it's already on Buzzfeed's "Goodful," it's healthier to begin with. But I've modified it to use zero-calorie FlavDrop and less honey and chocolate. I've noticed that you don't really need the exact amount that the recipe specifies of the non-base ingredients. The result was a tasty Dark Chocolate Banana Bread as pictured below:

I've also baked some more:

Matcha Pound Cake from Cookpad:

I used half the sugar and coconut oil

Matcha and Chocolate Marble Cake from here:

Instead of butter, I used coconut oil, and instead of sour cream, I used yogurt

Orange Cake from here:

I used Greek yogurt as frosting, vanilla FlavDrop, hand-squeezed juice, almond milk, and no vegetable oil

So I also baked all these without butter and milk. Instead, I use coconut oil or yogurt for butter and almond milk for milk. Everything so far has come out great. I hope I can keep baking because it's fun and also because baking is healthier when done at home!

#diet #nutrition