Baking Brings ComfortApplesauce Cake With WalnutsGluten Free and Vegan

This yummy cake is vegan and gluten free!

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Baking 
While people are sheltering in place during this pandemic, many have turned to baking. What's more comforting than the the smell of cinnamon wafting throughout the house? But as comforting as baking is, it can definitely contribute to the "quarantine 15", the expression referring to the pounds we are putting on. So this recipe uses far less sugar and fat than most. It's also gluten free.

Egg Shortages
First it was toilet paper, now it's eggs! With all the home meals and baking, people are now hoarding eggs, if they can find them. Well, you don't need eggs to bake a cake. Flax eggs work just as well (actually better) in this recipe while providing a nice boost of Omega-3 fatty acids. 

Miyoko did it Again!
I also am happy to report that Miyoko's new vegan butter made with oat milk is absolutely delicious. I also love her original stick vegan butter but had to give this one a try. Either one works well in this recipe.

My favorite dairy-free butter

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Applesauce Cake with Walnuts
Gluten and Dairy Free, Vegan
[makes 12 servings]

REQUIREMENTS
Electric beater
8" x 8" baking pan

INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds *
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons water *
2½ cups Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 gluten free baking flour
1½ teapoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons aluminum-free baking powder
1 scant teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon stevia powder **
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon softened vegan butter or coconut oil
½ cup light brown sugar
1½ cups applesauce
½ cup non-dairy milk or orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped raw walnuts

* Ground flax seeds and water can be replaced with 2 large eggs.
** I add the stevia for extra sweetness without the calories but you can omit and increase the brown sugar to ¾ cup.

Bob's Red Mill 1:1 already contains xanthan gum.
If you use regular GF flour, you will need to add
a teaspoon of xanthan gum to this recipe.

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease the pan with cooking spray, non-dairy butter or coconut oil.

Make the flax egg. Combine the ground flax seeds and water in a small bowl. Beat vigorously with a fork until gooey and set aside. After a minute or so, beat again.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and stevia powder. Mix well and set aside.

In a larger mixing bowl, combine the softened butter, sugar, applesauce, non-dairy milk and vanilla. Beat with an electric beater until well blended. 

Beat in the flax egg (or regular eggs.)

Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated. 

Using a spatula, fold in the walnuts.

Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool the pan on a rack and serve. 

Gluten Free recipes with less oil tend to crack.
No worries, they are still delicious!

I was inspired to make this so that I could use up some of
the applesauce that we canned from our apple tree.

2-Ingredient Flourless Chocolate Cake

This cake is dairy and gluten free!

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Great Cake for the Holidays 
As more and more guests show up with gluten and dairy allergies, this is a good dessert to have on hand. It is not vegan, however, as it needs eggs. At the end of this post, you can read about my efforts to veganize this recipe. 

First I will say that I did not invent this. My friend Margarite saw it on the internet and told me about it after I showed her a flourless chocolate cake I found in a magazine. That particular cake had almond flour, tons of sugar, butter, and was very high in calories. I knew that I could make it healthier and even try to make it vegan. But then she showed me this recipe that only had two ingredients - chocolate and eggs. I couldn't believe it! Although she had seen the recipe, she had never made it so I invited her over for the big experiment.

If you make it with vegan chocolate, it will be dairy and gluten free. My favorite chocolate is Endangered Species Natural Dark Chocolate - 72% cocoa. You can use any of your favorite chocolate chips or chocolate bars - you just need 9 ounces.

You can also spruce up the cake with berries and powdered sugar. 

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Two Ingredient Chocolate Cake
(Gluten Free, Dairy Free if using vegan chocolate)
makes 6 servings

Requirements
6-inch Spring Form Pan

Ingredients
4 large eggs, room temperature
9 ounces chocolate 
Powdered sugar (optional)
Raspberries to garnish (optional)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 6" spring form pan.

Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Place the bowl in the microwave and cook, in 30 second increments, until the chocolate melts. This can take 1 minute or slightly longer. You can also melt the chocolate in a double boiler, which is a bit messier.

Melted chocolate

Separate the eggs. Place the whites in a large, clean, glass bowl. Whip until soft peaks form. This can take a while so be patient. 

Beaten egg whites

Let the chocolate cool a bit and then, one by one, whip each yolk into the chocolate until well combined.

Gently fold 1/3 of the whipped egg whites into the chocolate/egg yolk mixture. Then repeat with the next 1/3 of the egg whites. And finally, with the last 1/3 of the egg whites.

Pour the batter into the greased 6-inch spring form pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Cool on a cake rack for 15 minutes or so. Then, release.

Release and serve

You can dress this up with powdered sugar, berries, or a scoop of non-dairy ice cream!

Nutrition:
Per serving: 258 calories, 21 g total fat, 12 g saturated fat, 141 mg cholesterol, 7 g protein, 21 g carbohydrates, 12 g sugar, 5 g dietary fiber, and 47 mg sodium.

Sometimes you just need an egg!
For my vegan followers, I tried really hard to make this vegan. I whipped up aquafaba (garbanzo bean juice) into beautiful peeks of "egg" white. I replaced the yolks with flax eggs and the result was a complete failure! I won't give up trying, but if you want a good laugh, here's how my vegan experiment turned out. It was basically a melted chocolate bar. We scraped it off and ate it anyway :-)

Sometimes you just need an egg!

Mango Cake - The Perfect Vegan And Gluten Free Easter Dessert

This gluten and dairy free dessert is the
perfect ending to your Easter Brunch.

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My Favorite Mango
Our favorite little mangoes are in season. They come with many names like Manilla, Ataulfo, Champagne, and Honey, with slight variations and places of origin. But they are all small (around 9 to 11 ounces) and as sweet as sugar.

Doug and I have been under the weather so to cheer ourselves up, and with the excuse of having to create an Easter dessert for the blog, we created a cake on Sunday with our very favorite fruit.

These are smaller, less stringy, and much sweeter than the large, more commonly found mangoes.

Easter Sunday is a great time to have family and friends over for brunch and this dessert is a good choice. It's vegan and gluten free so besides delighting everyone's taste buds, it will accommodate most everyones dietary issues. (See "Variation" below for a whole wheat version of the recipe.)

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Mango Cake
Vegan, Gluten and Dairy Free
[makes 12 servings]

Requirements
Electric Hand Mixer
9" round cake pan
Waxed paper, cut in a 9" circle

Ingredients
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for greasing pan 
2 tablespoons ground flax seeds 
6 tablespoons warm filtered water 
1 (10-ounce or more) Champagne mango
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill all purpose baking flour 
1½ teaspoon xanthan gum
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder 
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut plus some for sprinkling
½ cup organic cane sugar 
½ cup unsweetened applesauce 
1 teaspoon coconut extract 
1 mashed ripe banana
Powdered sugar for dusting

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F; grease a 9" round cake pan and insert a 9" circle of wax paper on the bottom of the pan.

In a small cup, make flax eggs by combining the ground flax seeds with the water. Beat well and set aside. After a few minutes, beat again until gooey. Set aside. 

Peel the mango with a potato peeler. Cut the mango off the seed and dice in small pieces. Some will be used in the cake and some will be used for the topping. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the shredded coconut. 

In a large bowl, combine the oil, sugar, applesauce, and coconut extract; beat with an electric hand mixer until creamy. Add the mashed banana and flax eggs and beat again until well combined.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat with the electric mixer until well combined. The mixture will be quite stiff.

Fold in 1/2 cup of the diced mango and set the rest of it aside. 

Spread evenly into the prepared cake pan.

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool in the cake pan for 30 minutes. Cut around the edges of the cake pan and flip the cake out onto a plate. Peel off the wax paper.

I like the looks of the browned top of the cake better than the bottom so flip over again onto the final serving plate. Let the cake cool completely before you proceed.

Pile the rest of the diced mango onto the center of the cake. Sprinkle a bit of shredded coconut over the mango and dust the entire cake with powdered sugar. 

Slice, making sure each piece has some diced mango over it, and serve.

Nutrition
Per serving: 181 calories, 7 g total fat, 2 g saturated fat, 310 mg omega-3 and 538 mg omega-6 fatty acids*, 0 mg cholesterol, 3 g protein, 30 g carbohydrates, 3.5 g dietary fiber, and 190 mg sodium. 

* Nutritional information for omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids excludes any contribution from Bob’s Redmill all purpose baking flour and xanthan gum since that information was not available from the manufacturer.

Variation
For a whole wheat cake, replace the gluten-free flour with King Arthur’s white whole-wheat flour, omit the xanthan gum, and increase the applesauce to 2/3 cup.

For more menu and recipe ideas, download my eBook, Health Begins in the Kitchen.

Make Your Holiday Baking Healthier - How To Convert Butter To Olive Oil In Recipes

Olive oil is a healthy substitute for butter in
holiday baking - Here's why!

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Check out my eBook, Health Begins in the Kitchen.

Holiday Baking
Before you start baking holiday goodies for your family, friends, and neighbors, consider substituting some or all of that butter with extra virgin olive oil. Here's why!

First of all, it takes less olive oil than butter.  Here's how it converts:

Butter              Oil
1 tsp       =      3/4 tsp
1 TB               2 1/4 tsp
2 TB               1 1/2 TB
1/4 C              3 TB
1/3 C             1/4 C
1/2 C              1/4 C + 2 TB
2/3 C              1/2 C
3/4 C              1/2 C + 1 TB
1 C                 3/4 C

For example, if your recipe calls for 1/2 cup of butter , you would only need 6 tablespoons of olive oil. Nutritionally, this means:
* you would save 100 calories, 
* the recipe would have 47 fewer grams of saturated fat,
* you would save 244 mg of cholesterol,
* the baked item with olive oil would have 260 mg more beneficial omega-3 and 4,811 mg more omega-6 fatty acids.

In addition, olive oil contains anti-inflammatory polyphenols which lower the body's overall inflammation.  So give it a try!

Can't Give it Up?
If you absolutely cannot give up that buttery flavor, try using some ghee. Ghee is traditionally used in Indian food and is made by cooking butter until all the moisture is removed and the milk solids are caramelized and filtered out. Ghee has many advantages over butter.

Although it's not vegan, people like myself who cannot eat dairy, can tolerate ghee because  it does not have lactose or the milk protein, casein. It also doesn't spoil and can last for several months without refrigeration, so it's nice and soft when you need it. 

Always buy organic ghee made from
grass-fed and pasture-raised cows

But despite the numerous health claims you may read about ghee, it is still a saturated fat so if you do eat it, do it sparingly. 

It's amazing how very little butter or ghee it takes to bring a buttery taste to your recipe. So if you don't want to replace all of your butter with olive oil, convert most of it and add just a little ghee.

Happy Baking!

Chocolate Vegan Cupcakes With Chocolate Cashew Icing - A Dessert For Your Valentine!

Love is in the air this Valentine's day with
vegan chocolate, chocolate chip cupcakes!

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Valentine's Menu
We always eat at home on Valentines Day. Restaurants seem to up the price and slash the quality on this holiday so we like to plan a romantic menu and enjoy cooking together while sipping an extra nice bottle of champagne.
I'm not yet sure of this year's menu but I am sure that it will include something chocolate. Cupcakes seem to be the big thing now so I decided to make some. I used the cake recipe I developed for the German Chocolate cake I posted a while back. For icing, I thought I'd try just adding cocoa to raw cashew cream. 


Most chocolate icings (vegan or not) use 2 cups of powdered sugar with butter or vegan margarine. Although I admit that they are a bit easier to make and set up stiffer, I just can't seem to bring myself to use that much sugar in a recipe. So this icing is made mostly from cashews and dates with some cocoa and a little coconut butter to give it some structure.  I licked so much of it out of the bowl while making it, I decided that, with a little modification, I will post it separately as a raw vegan chocolate pudding!


Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Cashew Cream Icing
Vegan
[makes 12 cupcakes]


For the frosting
3/4 cups cashews (soaked 6 hours or overnight)
3 Medjool dates (soaked 6 hours or overnight -reserve soak water)
3 tablespoons reserved soak water 
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 packets stevia or more to taste
2 tablespoons unrefined, virgin coconut oil, softened 


For the cake

1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

3 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Sucanat or organic cane sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened, non-GMO soy milk
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips 


Make the frosting first:
Rinse cashews and drain well. Place in a Vitamix or other high speed blender. Drain dates but save all the soak water. Place dates, 2 tablespoons of the soak water, vanilla, cocoa, stevia and coconut oil in the blender and process until very smooth, scraping down the sides and stirring frequently. Add another tablespoon of soak water only if needed. 
Once smooth, put in a small bowl and refrigerate for an hour or until it starts to stiffen.

Be patient. The frosting will eventually be this smooth.
Keep stirring and scraping down the sides. 

To make the cupcakes: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pan with 12 muffin paper cups.


Make a flax egg by combining ground flaxseeds and water in a small bowl or cup. Beat with a small fork and set aside. Beat again from time to time until it becomes gooey.


In a large bowl, mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.


In a medium bowl, mix sugar, soy milk, applesauce , vanilla, olive oil and flax egg. Beat with an electric hand mixer until thoroughly combined.


Add mixture to dry ingredients and beat with an electric hand mixer until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips.


Divide batter into muffin cups and bake in a preheated oven for about 14 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in the middle of the cupcake and it comes out clean.

I like using an ice cream scooper to scoop the batter.

Remove from oven, gently remove cupcakes and place on rack until completely cool.

Cool completely on a rack before icing.
Refrigerate after icing

When cool, ice with frosting. Decorate with 1/2 raspberry and chocolate sprinkles. Refrigerate for several hours.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Per iced cupcake: 234.7 calories, 12.3 g fat, 4.2 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 4.4 g protein, 30.3 g carbohydrates and 3.9 g dietary fiber.

Raw Vegan Blackberry Ice Cream On Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

Served with sliced bananas for a raw banana split or with a slice of this simple chocolate cake, raw blackberry ice cream is a perfect  summer dessert!

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More Raw Ice Cream!
I know I just posted Mango Macadamia Nut ice cream a few weeks ago but hey, it's summer! I can eat ice cream every day, especially when it's full of fresh fruit and raw, heart heathy nuts! 
My last post, Blackberry Lemon Ginger muffins featured the neighbors blackberries that are growing through my back fence. Well, there are plenty of blackberries left so this time I'll be using them to make raw ice cream.


Strain the Blackberries First
If you've ever thrown blackberries in your smoothie, even if you have a Vitamix blender, you'll notice the distasteful chopped up seeds in your mouth. There's no way around it - to get a nice smooth ice cream (or even smoothie), you need to strain the blackberries first. This gives you a beautiful and intense flavor. It takes a bit of patience, but it's worth it. So please, don't skip this step!

First blend the blackberries with a little water and strain.
Straining blackberries takes patience but don't skip this step!

Vegan and Gluten Free Chocolate Cake
I'm still trying to perfect my gluten free baking so today I'm sharing a very simple recipe for chocolate cake I developed using Bob's Red Mill gluten free all purpose flour. The recipe is relatively low in sugar and uses apple sauce to cut down the amount of oil to only 1/4 cup. Each slice is less than 150 calories!

Each slice is only 134 calories!

Blackberry Ice Cream
Raw Vegan, Gluten Free
[makes 8 servings]
2 cups fresh blackberries, cleaned
1 cup water
2 ounces raw cashews, (1/2 cup), soaked 6 hours and rinsed
3 Medjool dates, soaked 6 hours in 1 cup water (SAVE soak water)
1 large ripe banana, peeled 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract *
* vanilla extract is usually gluten free but if you are on a gluten restricted diet, check label.


Place blackberries and 1 cup water in a Vitamix or other high speed blender and blend until smooth.
Strain blackberries through a strainer pushing pulp through with the back of a spoon. Rinse blender.
Place cashews in the blender with dates and their soak water and process until smooth and milky.
Add blackberry pulp, banana and vanilla extract and process until very smooth. (I added a packet of stevia to mine to give it a touch more sweetness but this isn't necessary).
You can refrigerate this mixture until needed later in the day or the next day.
Place mixture in a 1 1/2 or 2 quart ice cream maker and process according to instructions.
Serve immediately. Place unused ice cream in individual scoops onto a cookie sheet or plate and freeze. Once frozen, place scoops in a plastic container and put back in freezer until needed. You may have to defrost slightly to get them off the cookie sheet or plate. (This process makes serving the leftover ice cream easier as low fat ice cream freezes very hard and is difficult to serve). Leftover ice cream scoops make a lovely addition to your morning smoothie!


Per serving: 94.1 calories, 3.3 g fat, 0.5 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1.9 g protein, 16.6 g carbohydrates and 1.5 g dietary fiber.


Simple Chocolate Cake
Vegan, Gluten Free
[makes 12 servings]
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour *
3/4 teaspoons xanthan gum *
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup soy milk
1/2 cup organic cane sugar or Sucanat
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)


* If you do not want to make the cake gluten free, replace gluten free flour with white whole wheat flour and eliminate the xanthan gum.


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of an 8 inch cake pan. Place in the bottom and grease the sides of the pan with Earth Balance vegan buttery spread or olive oil. Set aside.
Make a flax egg by combining ground flaxseeds and water in a small bowl or cup. Beat with a fork until the mixture becomes gooey. Set aside.
Combine flour, xanthan gum, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl and mix well.
In a medium bowl, mix the soy milk with the sugar, vanilla extract, apple sauce, olive oil and flax egg. Mix with a hand beater or a fork until thoroughly combined.
Add mixture to the dry ingredients and beat again until well blended.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 23 to 25 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes.
Turn the cake onto the rack, gently removing the wax paper from the bottom. Turn the cake back over so it is cooling face side up. Set aside until cool or serve slightly warm.
Dust with powdered sugar if desired.


Per serving: 133.8 calories, 5.8 g fat, 0.7 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2.3 g protein, 21.6 g carbohydrates and 2.7 g dietary fiber.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cake With German Chocolate Coconut And Pecan Icing

Dates and cashews provide the creamy base for the pecan and coconut icing.

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Our Annual Celebration!
I know it's a big jump from the raw vegan, gluten free cleanse we did last week to a German chocolate cake, but I'm getting ready for our annual family party. Every year we all get together to celebrate Summer Solstice. It's not that we are into pagan rituals, the family just decided that the end of June was a perfect time to get together. The airports aren't too crowded. There's no chance of snow delays. Our pool is generally warm enough by then for the grandkids to swim. And the date has generally worked out for everyone!
So with this year's party coming up, I thought I'd better decide on a yummy dessert that will please the crowd. The number one concern for me is NO DAIRY. Last year's party coincided with our 20th wedding anniversary and I bought a decadent cake from this very fancy bakery in Sebastopol. Although everyone really enjoyed it, (I must admit, it was delicious), I felt awful after eating it. It must have contained lots of cream and I'm lactose intolerant. So this year, I'm going to make the dessert myself!


Definitely Not Low in Calories
German chocolate cakes have an icing that always includes two ingredients that are pretty high in calories and high in fat - coconut and pecans. Although neither of these ingredients are particularly unhealthy foods, when you combine them with white sugar, evaporated milk, butter and egg yokes (as in the traditional recipe), you can end up with a piece of cake that exceeds 600 calories per slice! So even though my recipe is fairly high in calories, it is made mostly from whole, natural foods and is still half the calories of some traditional recipes. The saturated fat comes from coconut's tropical oil which is not harmful like the saturated fat from butter. And, the cake is cholesterol free and rich in heart healthy nuts!
Dates and cashews make up the creamy base for the icing of chopped pecans and unsweetened shredded coconut and the cake is made with white whole wheat flour. (If you haven't discovered King Arthur's white whole wheat flour yet, check it out. It's as light as white flour yet it has the nutrients and dietary fiber of whole wheat! It's the ONLY wheat flour I use.) 
So although you shouldn't make this rich cake a regular part of your diet, it's a wonderful treat when the family gets together. I hope my family likes it!

Vegan chocolate chips are folded into the cake batter for added richness . 

This vegan chocolate chip cake is delicious even without icing and it's only 161 calories per slice!
Dust with powdered sugar and serve with sliced strawberries!

Vegan German Chocolate Cake
[makes 12 - 16 servings]
For the chocolate chip cake
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds
3 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Sucanat or organic cane sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened, non-GMO soy milk
1/2 cup mashed banana
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
For the coconut pecan icing
1 cup raw cashews, soaked 4 - 6 hours and rinsed
4 medjool dates, pitted and soaked 4 - 6 hours (drained, reserving soak water)
1/4 cup reserved date soak water
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup dried, unsweetened, shredded coconut - divided
2/3 cup raw pecans, finely chopped


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of an 8 inch cake pan and place in the bottom. Grease the sides of the pan with vegan margarine or olive oil. Set aside.
To make the cake, begin by making a flax egg by combining ground flaxseeds and water in a small bowl or cup. Beat with a small fork until the mixture becomes gooey. Set aside.
Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and mix well.
In a medium bowl, mix the sugar with soy milk, mashed banana, vanilla, olive oil and flax egg with an electric beater (if you have one) until thoroughly combined.
Add this to the dry ingredients and beat again until well blended. 
Fold in the chocolate chips and pour into prepared cake pan.
Bake for 22 to 25 minutes or until you can insert a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean.
Remove from oven and cool in the pan, on a rack, for 5 to 10 minutes.
Turn the cake onto the rack, gently removing the wax paper from the bottom. Turn the cake back over so it is cooling with its top facing up. Set aside until it's completely cool.
To make the icing, add soaked and rinsed cashews, the dates and 1/4 cup of their soak water, vanilla and maple syrup to a food processor with an S blade. Process until smooth and creamy scraping down the sides when necessary.
Add all but 1 tablespoon of the shredded coconut and pulse a few times until it is combined.
Place into a bowl and stir in the chopped pecans.
Ice the cake and sprinkle the remaining tablespoon of coconut over the top. 
Serve immediately or refrigerate.


Per serving (12 pieces): 333.7 calories, 19.7 g fat, 6.6 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 5.8 g protein, 37.6 g carbohydrates and 5.4 g dietary fiber.


Per serving (16 pieces): 250.3 calories, 14.7 g fat, 4.9 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 4.3 g protein, 28.2 g carbohydrates and 4.1 g dietary fiber.

Orange Cranberry Pecan Upside Down Cake - A Healthy Vegan Dessert For Thanksgiving And It's Low In Calories!

Sprinkle brown sugar over buttery spread.

Spread cranberries and pecans evenly over buttery spread.

Spread cake batter over cranberries and pecans and bake.

Bake 45 minutes, until golden brown.

After cooling 15 minutes, turn over onto a serving platter.

Something Besides Pumpkin Pie for Thanksgiving Dessert

Don't get me wrong. I love pumpkin pie as much as the next guy but it's nice to have something else to serve. Something that doesn't involve a pie crust. Something colorful. Something that's less than 200 calories a slice!

I looked at a lot of recipes for inspiration. Most of them were pretty unhealthy. One cranberry upside down cake called for 2 sticks of butter and an entire cup of brown sugar just for the topping! So in my sleep last night, I came up with this recipe. Seriously, that's where I do my best work. Once in college I solved an engineering problem to two decimals places in my sleep which I had unsuccessfully been working on for 2 hours before bed time!

This recipe melds the flavors of orange, cranberries and pecans; ingredients you often find in cranberry relish. It's low in oil (only a quarter cup) and has 2/3's cup of sugar total for the topping and the cake. This 9 inch cake will serve 12, especially after a big Thanksgiving dinner.

***

Orange Cranberry Pecan Upside Down Cake

[makes 12 servings]

For the topping

2 tablespoons earth balance or other vegan buttery spread

1/3 cup organic vegan brown sugar

6 ounces fresh cranberries, rinsed and dried

1/2 cup raw pecans, chopped

For the batter

1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

3 tablespoons water

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour

6 packets stevia

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/3 cup organic cane sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 F.

To make the topping:

Spread 2 full tablespoons of buttery spread (make sure it's usable for baking) on the bottom of a 9 inch cake pan. Put some up the sides as well but most of it should go on the bottom.

Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the bottom.

Spread cranberries and pecans evenly over the brown sugar and butter.

To make the batter:

Make a flax egg by mixing the ground flax seed and water. Set aside, mixing it occasionally until it gets gooey.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, stevia, salt, sugar, and baking powder until combined.

In a smaller bowl, mix orange juice, applesauce, olive oil, vanilla and the flax egg. Beat well.

Pour the orange juice mixture into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Spread the mixture carefully over the topping and place in the preheated oven.

Bake for 45 minutes until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for 15 minutes on a wire rack.

Loosen cake from the sides of the pan using a butter knife or narrow spatula.

Place a plate upside down over the cake and invert the cake pan onto the plate. Wait a few minutes and remove the pan.

Serve warm.

Per serving: 198.5 calories, 9.9 g fat, 1.4 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 2.6 g protein, 25.5 g carbohydrates, and 3.1 g dietary fiber.

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