Here’s How You Can Make Your Christmas Cake Healthy!

A traditional Christmas feast can hardly be complete without the ubiquitous tasty plum cake. Whether you are spending Christmas at home or near and dear ones, you will find plum cakes everywhere. The plum cake combines different tastes such as bitter, sweet, spice, and a melange of wonderful flavors. It also combines a blend of fruits and nuts infused in alcoholic drinks and which you need to soak in for several months.

While plum cakes are delicious, they can cause havoc to your health. However, can you avoid it completely? Well, you don’t have to; you can instead make a healthier version of the cake. Here’s how you can eat your cake and have it too by using these hacks.

Using a Healthier Flour

All-purpose flour is usually the flour of choice for baking, but it may not be one of the healthiest options available as all-purpose flour is devoid of fiber which is extremely important for digestion. A healthier replacement to the all-purpose flour can be whole-wheat flour, almond flour, or even quinoa flour.

You can blend a few flours to make it even more beneficial. You can even add oatmeal flour. It works especially well for people who are gluten intolerant. Gluten-free flours may not always work well as the flour may not rise well, but you can always combine it with whole-wheat flour to make the cake’s texture better.

Substitute for Butter

Another staple for baking cakes is certainly butter. Whether salted or unsalted, butter can add a certain amount of texture to the plum cake, but it can be extremely unhealthy and spell bad news for your waistline. You can use olive oil instead of butter as a healthier alternative.

Other surprisingly healthy substitutes are healthier without compromising on taste or consistency. Applesauce is one of the best healthy ingredients that can add a different type of flavor to your cakes. Prepare your applesauce as you boil the apples with water, add some sugar (or honey), lemon juice, and cinnamon, and simmer it for 20-30 minutes. Puree it well and store it in a tight container. Your applesauce is ready to replace the oil and butter in your cake. It works great if you are on a strict weight loss plan.

Nuts and Seeds

There are other ways of making your cake delectable, such as adding healthy ingredients such as chia seeds or sunflower seeds that can offer a healthy dimension to your cake along with the extra crunch. You can add dry fruits such as figs, raisins, cashews, and walnuts, that are high in magnesium, potassium, calcium and pack the vitamin punch and indeed are extremely healthy for you. Also, dried fruits are not only delicious but also extremely healthy.

Replace Sugar

A cake that is not sweet cannot be called a cake at all. However, sugar is not very healthy and packs in full of empty calories bereft of nutrition. You can make your cakes healthier by using natural forms of sweeteners such as stevia, maple syrup, honey, brown sugar, or even jaggery. You can skip the sweeteners and add raisins and crushed dates, which can add sweetness to your cakes without making them unhealthy.

Whey Protein

One scoop of whey protein powder can pack in about 20-22 grams. Add it to your homemade cake, and it can help achieve your daily recommended protein intake. Usually, your protein goal equates to 0.8g per kilograms of body weight. Protein can aid in muscle growth and recovery, and it is advisable for people who are in the active age group who need to fulfill their protein requirements.

Add Veggies

A few vegetables, such as pumpkin, can make it to the healthy ingredient list when baking healthy cakes. You can add 1-2 cups of pumpkin puree to lend a lot of flavors to otherwise plain cakes.

Add the puree to the oatmeal, flour, sugar, applesauce, eggs, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, chopped almonds, and ginger. You can substitute sugar with honey and applesauce with butter. Mix the ingredients to a greased pan and bake the cake for 20-30 minutes or more depending on the amount, and voila, you have the perfect Christmas cake.

There you go. Your Christmas cake is delicious, healthy, and ready to devour! Are you willing to try baking healthier cakes this Christmas?