Healthyish Coconut Cake

Now that summers coming up everyone in my house is trying to watch what they eat....which it very tricky when I am baking 24/7; so I decided to make my recipes a bit more healthy. So if you're looking for a healthy coconut cake recipe...well healthyish, this is the place to look.

I say healthyish because coconut has many health benefits and I also substituted the white flour for wholemeal flour and cream for no fat natural yogurt. However, there is no beating around the bush a cake is still a cake and not all that good for you! This recipe just makes it slightlyy better for you and you could make it even better by substituting the butter for coconut oil but we did not have enough coconut oil left in the house for me to do this.

This cake is moist yet has texture due to the desiccated coconut which makes it extra scrummyy. It also has a creamy topping of natural yogurt and desiccated coconut which adds that finishing touch to the cake.

Coconut Cake:

Ingredients:

175g Butter

175g Wholemeal Plain Flour

175g Golden Caster Sugar

3 and a 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

3 Eggs

50g Desiccated Coconut plus extra to decorate 

2 tbsp Natural Yogurt plus extra to decorate 

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4.

2. Cream together the butter,flour,sugar,baking powder and eggs until well combined.

3. Add the coconut and yogurt into the mixture, mix gently.

4. Pour the mixture into a prepared buttered and floured cake tin.

5. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes on gas mark 4 then turn the oven down to gas mark 3 and cook for a further 15 minutes.

6. Leave to cool, remove the cake from the tin and cover with natural yogurt and desiccated coconut to decorate.

This cake is best served with an extra dollop of natural yogurt!

What are your tips to make your baked goods healthyish?

Apple Crumble Cake

EXAMS ARE FINISHED! Now that my exams are finished I thought I would celebrate with this apple crumble cake, I mean whats better than apple crumble and cake combined?

Now this cake really is delicious and sounds very impressive yet is easy peasy to make.

Apple Crumble Cake

*Adapted from the Hummingbird recipe*

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

60g Butter

140g Plain Flour

100g Caster Sugar

1 Egg

1tsp Vanilla Essence

1tsp Baking Powder

80ml Milk

3 Granny Smith Apples

For the Crumble topping:

140g Plain Flour

1tsp Ground Cinnamon

80g Butter

140g Soft Light Brown Sugar

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 3, then grease a round tin with butter and dust with flour.

2. For the crumble topping sift the flour and cinnamon into a bowl. Add the butter and using your fingertips rub the ingredients together until they look like breadcrumbs.Stir in the sugar and set aside.

3. For the cake cream together the butter and sugar using a whisk until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla essence and make sure all the ingredients are well combined.

4. Sift half the flour and baking powder into the cake batter then add half the milk into the batter, mix until well combined then repeat this. Pour into the prepared cake tin.

5. Peel, core and slice the apples into thin slices or thicker ones if you want the apples to have more of an crunch. 

6. Arrange the apples onto the cake batter in the cake tin making sure it is arranged evenly.Then sprinkle with the crumble topping making sure you do so evenly.

7. Bake for 35-45 minutes until the crumble is golden brown and when a skewer is inserted into the cake it comes out clean. Then voila enjoyyyyy! (best served warm with custard or cream orrrr Ice Cream)

If you love cake and crumble this is sure to be the cake for you; you get the best of both worlds!