Whilst I am generally in favour of eating healthily, 'healthy' cakes don't usually feature on my radar as I would normally have the full-fat, full-flavour version without sweeteners and without cutting down on the taste. However, for a friend's birthday I decided to try out this 'healthier' version of carrot cake as she has been doing really well losing weight and we didn't want to make her feel bad about eating cake! Each month, Good Food magazine makes over a dish to produce a healthier version without cutting back on taste, and this carrot cake had really good reviews.
The cake mixture should contain rapeseed oil, which is considered to be healthier than other varieties, although I didn't have any so I did use vegetable oil. There is a lot of grated carrot, plus orange juice, to keep the cake moist without adding more fat, and some of the flour is replaced with wholemeal four. The icing is also a healthier version, using low fat cream cheese and quark, as well as a small amount of icing sugar and lemon juice.
Whilst I love the full fat version of carrot cake, I would quite happily eat this instead. In fact, I might even choose this over 'normal' carrot cake. The reason for this is that it has so much taste, but it's less rich and therefore easier on the stomach! The cake is delicious - full of flavour and extremely moist. The icing is a bit runny due to not being whisked to death with masses of icing sugar, but this does mean that it isn't over sweet like so many types of icing.
It was also really easy to make and didn't involve fussing around with odd ingredients like some 'healthier' recipes do. I realise I say this often, but this is definitely a make-again cake!
I obviously like healthy eating too, but I don't really like "healthier" reduced fat/sugar versions of foods. I'd rather just not have any or a smaller unhealthy version than a normal "healthy" portion. I figure I'll get less fat not having any then having a small low sugar portion, finding it nice, then having another piece! Though obviously as its for a birthday (you're always baking birthday cakes) you HAVE to have cake on your birthday and if you're on a diet a healthy one may be better.
ReplyDeleteI do like the idea of less sweet icing though as I often find icing especially butter cream when its thick can be a bit too much.
Finally what on earth is quark? I know quarks are sub atomic particles but why exactly would you put them in a cake?