My parents are at work, my grandparents are in Canada, and I find myself alone in the house for the first time in two years. So which room have I been in, for the past two hours?
The kitchen.
Naturally.
I am convinced that when I finally get a place of my own - be it house, apartment, studio, or shack - the kitchen must be the largest (or only) room. I can stuff a futon into the one-room kitchen house, if it comes down to it.
So, this morning, I made myself a delicious morning mix, with one cup of honey granola and one cup of frozen blueberries. After enjoying every bite, and feeling oddly full a few minutes after finishing, I entered the meal into a convenient calorie counter, only to find that the meal came out to...
620 calories?!
A cup of that granola was 420 calories. Oops.
So after an hour to myself, vegging on the couch with the radio and my usual sweet iced tea (using some frozen blueberries as ice - yum!), I decided, well, if I'm too stuffed to eat for a while - I'll bake!
In the oven for today:
Healthy carrot cake
--
Carrot cake.
Why did my mind jump to carrot cake, of all things?
Well, I had been perusing Fitness Magazine in the bookstore the other day and had come across a recipe for healthier carrot cake. I'd been thinking about it since then, and here, I found my chance to make it!
But since I'm not one to just see one recipe and trust it... I did my research, as usual. In fact, I often spend more time choosing the recipe than actually baking it.
Here, my (extensive) thoughts:
Fragrant and healthy carrot cake - great title, but I have no whole wheat flour, cake flour, molasses, or figs, let alone poppy seeds
Lite carrot cake - 132 calories/serving? Wow!
Sam's famous carrot cake - ah, the recipe I used the first time I made carrot cake, which also happened to be the second cake I had ever baked. Delicious, got my confidence up, such a good cake... But 374 calories? Still less than my granola splurge today, but can't do it!
Carrot Cake - five stars from 276 reviews? Unfortunately, two out of the three featured on the page complain about its bread-like texture, and other faults, so... next!
Carrot Cake - good reviews, 284 calories/slice.
Low-calorie Carrot Cake - the original recipe that started all this, from Fitness Magazine. This blogger reviews it as decent. Tasteless, but saved by the frosting. Then why even eat the bread part? Why not make only the frosting and eat it like a Sprinkles's frosting shot?
These three tabs survived my weeding of recipes:
Carrot Cake Recipe (from MyRecipes) - 284 calories
Low-Calorie Carrot Cake (from Fitness Magazine) - 125 calories
I was still undecided.
The Fitness carrot cake just doesn't seem worth the slashed calories, I thought. It uses a half cup of vegetable oil, while the MyRecipes recipe doesn't use oil at all (but it does use butter).
It also requires 7 or 8 egg whites - I'm sorry, did you say, EIGHT eggs? That's half my egg carton! The AllRecipes carrot cake uses only three whole eggs!
The Fitness recipe is just odd. But I like that it adds another cup of carrots, and that its frosting omits the butter.
Looks like I have some tweaking to make!
--
Presenting...
(Fitness-AllRecipes-MyRecipes carrot cake - a low-calorie treat for the whole fam!)
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup applesauce
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 1/2 cups grated carrots
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts
Frosting (optional):
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.
2. Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until frothy.
3. Gradually add 1/2 cup of the white sugar. Beat until stiff.
If you take out the beater, you should be able to see white peaks standing, stiffly, on their own. Yeah, I was pretty shocked that eggs could be transformed like this.
3. In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon).
...and after stirring. It's like sand art.
4. Mix in the oil, buttermilk, and egg yolks.
I did this, and after waiting for the milk to sour, I mixed the buttermilk, oil, and yolks together.
5. Add the mixture (dry ingredients + power protein glass) to the stiff egg whites.
6. Stir...
... and stir ...
until it looks like this!
Now for the fun part!
7. Add the grated carrots to the mixture.
8. Add the raisins.
9. Add the walnuts.
Can I just repeat, that I LOVE add-ins??
10. Mix it all together.
11. Pour batter into prepared pans.
11. Now, bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 35 minutes. And...
Voila!
Optional: If you want the traditional iced carrot cake, wait for the cakes to cool, then frost them with the cream cheese frosting (simply beat the following at medium speed: softened cream cheese, vanilla extract, salt, and sugar).
I found that my cake was sweet enough as it was, and the naked presentation allowed all of the flavors to shine. Not to mention the packed texture ;)
Enjoy!
3 comments:
my favorite! carrot cake! and lots of nuts, yum!
And it's healty too!
@mijenda It's great, isn't it? Who knew that cake could be (kind of) good for you?
Yup! :) Gotta love carrot cake
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