{photo by Cheryl McCabe}
Last week we brought you tips on health and wellness, and to follow up, here’s a recipe sent in by one of our SLOCA parents, for a super healthy cake! Many thanks to Track B mom Cheryl McCabe for sharing this with us. I made this at home and really enjoyed it (my kids weren’t so sure… vegetables in cake?!?!) If you like to bake health-filled, whole-food treats, give this one a try! Here are Cheryl’s comments and the recipe:
I found this via Instagram several months back and is now one of my favorite “desserts.” I can no longer eat sugar without some major ramifications to my body so I’ve had to be creative when the sweet cravings come. This opened up a whole new world to me and my family as I searched for whole foods that would both satisfy my sweet tooth and actually benefit my system. The very first time I made it, I was a bit heavy handed with the spinach and my older boys can definitely tell there was something suspicious in there, but my youngest son, who eats most anything, just gobbled it up. So, a little bit of tweaking depending on your family and your palate may need to happen but either way, you will never feel bad eating this. As they say, you can (finally!) have your cake and eat it too!
Above is my “before” photo and I should’ve taken an after shot but I forgot because I was in a hurry to eat it…
Ingredients:
- 3 mashed bananas
- 3 eggs
- 3 T nut butter (2 almond + 1 sunflower)
- 1 sweet potato, grated
- 1 small zucchini, grated
- 1 beet, grated
- 2 carrots, grated
- frozen chopped spinach
- handful of raisins
- 3 T ground flaxseed
- 2 small apples (to decorate the top with)
- cinnamon
- a bit of maple syrup as a little extra sweetener (if your bananas aren’t very ripe)
Directions:
Combine all ingredients except the apples. Oil your 9×13 baking dish well or use parchment paper because it will stick since there’s not a lot of fat. I used coconut oil and it added a delicious nutty flavor. Pour your mixture into the dish and layer the apples on top. You can brush a little butter on top of the apples, if you’d like. Bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or so (depending on if you substituted any ingredients, you may need to adjust the temperature and time, just make sure you’re watching it). This is a super moist cake so make sure to cool it completely or it’ll fall apart.
