Monday, April 6, 2009

Extremely Delicious Low-Fat Whole Wheat Carrot Cake

As a part of my Diet-Pimping, I've spent a countless number of hours searching for healthy, low-fat recipes, mostly online. The biggest issue I see people worrying about on their similar quests for the low-fat alternatives is the possible negative effect on taste that the "low-fat" bit of the title entails. In short, most people seem to assume that low-fat= bland, tasteless, gross, not-worth-it. Let's get one thing straight. I'm all for going healthy, I'm fully committed to the Pimp-my-Diet cause... but not if the price is good-tasting food.
That being said, this recipe is extremely healthy and definitely delicious. I found a reasonably healthy recipe for carrot cake online, but I immediately made changes to the recipe in the hopes that I would get an even better version. I've only ever made it following these ingredients and directions, so I can't really compare it to the end product of the original recipe. The original recipe called for 3/4 cup oil instead of 1 cup applesauce, white whole wheat flour instead of plain whole wheat, honey instead of brown sugar (I'm sure honey works in this recipe just as well), pineapple, 4 eggs instead of 3 egg whites, and quite a bit more salt.
Carrot cake is awesome with cream-cheese icing. When I find the golden, healthy version of the stuff, it'll definitely be put up here. This time, I made one mixing light cream cheese with almond cream... (almond butter?). The outcome was OK.
The nutritional value for this recipe was calculate for 16 servings, but I usually cut it into more (about 24).

Ingredients
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar (or honey)
  • 3 egg whites
  • 2 cups grated or finely chopped carrots

Directions

  1. Combine dry ingredients.
  2. Add applesauce, sugar/honey, and eggs; mix well.
  3. Stir in remaining 3 ingredients.
  4. Bake in greased cake pan for 35 to 45 minutes at 350 degrees F (180 C).
  5. Cool in pan several minutes, then remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.

Nutrition Facts (per serving, 16 servings)

Calories 94.1
Total Fat 0.3 g
Saturated Fat 0.1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.0 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 244.0 mg
Potassium 80.5 mg
Total Carbohydrate 21.1 g
Dietary Fiber 2.5 g
Sugars 2.2 g Protein 3.1 g

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