Tag: wholewheat cake

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Wholewheat Jaggery Banana Tea Cake aka Healthy Banana Bread

I am a mother of a ten year old. Now, all the mothers out here will agree with me that when it comes to kids, we always try to find healthy ways to feed them their favourites.

I absolutely love Banana Bread. I think the true existence of bananas were to become over ripe and transform into banana bread. This Banana Cake comes out insanely delicious and is so much more healthier for you. It is dairy free with goodness of wholewheat flour, jaggery and walnuts. Bananas add such a brilliant taste to baked goods that it amazes me every time. The gooeyness of bananas combined with nuttiness of wholewheat flour and earthiness of jaggery makes this banana cake irresistible. This gets polished off at my house before I even know it. I barely get to eat a slice.

Ingredients used that make this Cake Healthy and their Substitutes

Wholewheat Flour: Whole wheat flour is a whole grain that provides more fiber and other nutrients naturally than refined enriched flours. It can be used in place of all-purpose flour in baking and cooking. However, if you don’t have wholewheat flour, you can try this recipe with combination of other flour like rolled oats flour, finger millet or gluten free flour.

Jaggery Powder: It gives banana bread its rich caramel flavour. It is so much more healthier than refined white sugar. Jaggery has cleansing properties that help clear the lungs and respiratory tract. Other health benefits of jaggery include improved immunity, anaemia prevention and improved digestive health. If you do not have it on hand, the you can use coconut sugar, unrefined palm sugar or any other unrefined sugar.

Egg: Apart from nutrition, egg adds structure and texture to banana bread. If you want to make this cake eggless, you use 1/4th cup of yogurt or milk of your choice as a substitute of 1 egg. This will yield similar results.

Cinnamon: With its warm, sweet and slightly spicy flavour cinnamon adds a lot of depth to baked goods. However, if you don’t want to use it, you can omit it.

Walnuts: Walnuts provide great flavour, texture, and a beautiful crunch to banana bread. They have a mild and creamy taste which makes them perfect for cakes. You can skip them if you don’t like or add chocolate chunks or chips or toasted almonds in this recipe. You can also add dried fruits like raisins, dried cranberries, dried blueberries etc.

This recipe is absolutely fuss free and easy peasy. It requires no endless whipping and whisking. Just throw everything in the blender and then mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients. That’s pretty much it. With little effort required, this Banana Bread will fill your house with the beautiful aroma that feels like a warm hug. If you want more of such fuss free healthy cake recipes, you can try my Wholewheat Carrot Orange Tea Cake recipe too.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Wholewheat Flour
  • 2 medium size over ripe Bananas
  • 1/3rd cup Jaggery Powder
  • 1 large Egg
  • 1/4th cup Coconut oil/Olive oil/Non-fragrant Oil
  • 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
  • 1/4th tsp Cinnamon Powder
  • 1/4th tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1/2 cup chopped Walnuts
  • 1/4th cup mixed Seeds of your choice (optional)

Instructions

  • Preheat oven at 180 C ten minutes prior to baking.
  • Line a 6 by 3 inch rectangular pan with a parchment paper or alternatively grease baking tin with oil and dust it with some flour.
  • In a blender or food processor, add bananas, oil, jaggery powder, vanilla extract and egg and blend till everything combines well.
  • In a large bowl, sieve wholewheat flour 3-4 times. This will add more air and will ensure that the cake doesn’t get a dense texture.
  • In the same bowl, sieve baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon powder. Add chopped walnuts to dry ingredients. Mix everything well and keep aside.
  • Now, add wet ingredients in the blender to dry ingredients in 2 or 3 batches. Cut and fold gently each time. Do not over mix the batter.
  • Add the prepared batter to the cake tin. Top it with mixed seeds. Tap the pan on the shelf 2-3 times to clear out all the air bubbles.
  • Bake for 35 minutes or till toothpick inserted at the centre comes out clean. Allow it to cool for 15 minutes in the pan. To remove the cake from the pan, simply run a blunt knife around the edges and invert on the wire rack. Tap the pan 2 or 3 times and the cake will slide out.

Pro Tips

  1. Use the yellowest of bananas. Actually, the blacker the better. Over ripe bananas are the sweetest and are perfect for baking.
  2. Ensure the jaggery powder is smooth and fine to avoid grainy batter. You can sieve the powder to get rid of grainy bits.
  3. This cake will be a little more moist than your usual cakes because of the use of jaggery and bananas, so let it cool completely before trying to turn it out or you will end up breaking it.
  4. This recipe can also be used to make muffins. It will give 8 to 9 muffins.


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Wholewheat Carrot Orange Tea Cake- Kid Friendly Easy Recipe

Carrot cake is my and my child’s all time favourite. There’s something so heartwarming about a good carrot cake. As soon as those orange carrots hit the Indian market, this is one thing I crave. 

Why did I add orange to this cake? Well, I think it gives it that special subtle finesse that makes it stand out. Orange flavor goes beautifully with carrots. It gives a burst of citrus flavour along with a bright punch.

One bite of this can even convert those silly people who don’t like carrot cake 😄 Who are these people anyway!

My child loves to carry a slice of cake or a muffin in his school snack box. So I had to make it healthy and equally delicious for my child. This is the recipe that I mastered after a few failed attempts. Well, not exactly failed though. Those failed attempts were edible too but this one comes out to be perfectly soft, moist and fluffy. 

It is made using Wholewheat flour and Jaggery. Now baking with wholewheat flour can be a little tricky. It can make the texture of the cake dense. To ensure that your cake remains light and fluffy, the trick is to sieve wholewheat flour 3-4 times. This will add more air and the cake will not come out dense.

This recipe is actually so easy to make that anyone who hasn’t tried baking before will be able to crack it. Being a mother I understand how busy days get and trying those time consuming recipes can be quite daunting at times. To save you from all that hassle, all you have to do is put everything in a blender and Viola! Your batter is ready in less than 5 minutes. This will also save you from washing too many bowls which is quite a task when you have to bake.

Do try out this recipe and let me know. Trust me it will not disappoint you. 🙂 You can frost this cake with your favourite cream cheese frosting. This recipe is a make-ahead cake recipe whose taste and texture will not be compromised.

This cake is not overly sweet. I don’t prefer too sweet desserts. Feel free to add more jaggery if you like.

Recipe: cup measurement 250 ml

Prep time: 15 minsCook time: 30 mins



Ingredients

  • 2 medium size Carrots, shredded
  • 3 heaped tbsps Orange Marmalade 
  • 60 grams softened unsalted Butter or any non-fragrant oil
  • 1/2 cup Jaggery powder
  • 1 1/2 cup Wholewheat flour
  • A generous pinch Salt
  • 2 small Eggs
  • 1/2 cup Milk 
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp Baking soda
  • 1 tsp Baking powder
  • Handful of Chopped Walnuts (optional)

Method

  • In a blender, add butter, jaggery, lightly beaten eggs, milk, shredded carrots, marmalade & vanilla extract. Blend well on high speed till everything comes together. Take it out in a large bowl.
  • In another bowl, sieve wholewheat flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add walnuts now if using and combine everything well. 
  • Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in 2 to 3 batches. Gently cut & fold each time till everything incorporates well and there are no lumps. Don’t mix rigorously or over mix the batter. This will lead to a dense cake texture.
  • Preheat oven at 180C 10 minutes prior to baking. Grease a 7 inches diameter round pan or 11x7x2 inches rectangular baking pan with butter and line it with parchment paper or alternatively you can dust it with some flour. 
  • Add the batter. Tap the pan on the shelf 2-3 times to clear out all the air bubbles. Now, bake for 30 minutes on the middle rack of your oven or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean. 
  • Allow it to cool for 15 minutes in the pan and then transfer it on a wire rack to cool completely. If you find that the cake is sticking to the bottom of the pan, leave the cake upside down for sometime and let gravity do it’s thing.

My Pro Tips:

  1. Use fresh baking soda. It looses it potency after 6 months of opening it.
  2. When measuring dry ingredients, level it off using the straight edge of a spoon or a butter knife.
  3. This recipe makes 12 muffins. Bake them for 14 to 18 minutes and allow the muffins to cool completely on wire rack.
  4. You can add cinnamon and ginger powder to this recipe to add a warm touch to it.
  5. If you want this cake to be perfectly moist, use fresh carrots and shred them. DO NOT USE packaged pre-shredded carrots for this recipe. This is the prime moisture for your cake and you don’t want to miss it.
  6. In case you want to bake this cake for yourself and are feeling fancy, I would highly recommend adding Orange Whiskey Marmalade. Orange and whiskey combination can lift your simple cake to something gourmet. You can buy it here-
Orange and Whiskey Marmalade

Substitutes:

  • Eggs: You can either use flaxmeal or 1/4th cup Greek yogurt for every egg. For flaxmeal, take 1 tbsp flaxseeds for every egg. Coarsely ground them. Add 4 tbsps of water and let it sit for 15 minutes. It will become like a slimy gel like mixture. Use this as a substitute for one egg.
  • Orange Marmalade: If you don’t want to use Orange Marmalade, you can use 1/4th cup of freshly squeezed orange juice along with a tsp of orange zest instead. If using orange juice, you might have to adjust sugar accordingly. Add 1 or 2 tbsps of extra jaggery powder.
  • Jaggery: In case you don’t have jaggery powder, you can use any unprocessed sugar like palm sugar, coconut sugar etc.