I occasionally share pictures of food I cook in my Insta stories and get a lot of requests for recipes but have never really done any recipe posts. There are a couple reasons for that. My recipes don’t always involve exact measurements and I rely a lot on my judgement at that moment. I also don’t manage to click beautiful pictures of the food I make because I’m generally in a rush to cook, pack, serve, feed etc
From now onwards I plan to share one recipe or technique each week of something I’ve cooked. They may not be masterpieces or completely my inventions but they will almost always be healthy. Nutrition and child nutrition in particular is something I’m very driven about and in my daily life I try to look for and cook a variety of food that is tasty but at the same time a healthier alternative to packaged/ processed/ refined food.
Also read:
The Importance of a Balanced Diet
Why our children are in trouble
‘My child won’t eat’: How to enjoy mealtimes without worry
Like most kids, mine too enjoy sweet treats. The problem with offering store bought sweets is when you offer it even occasionally due to the combination of addictive ingredients, it quickly becomes a habit. So I try my best not to offer my children store bought chocolates, cookies, pastries, cakes etc while we are at home. This way they know that it is not the norm. They have enough of those things in birthday parties, restaurants, visiting others etc. So what’s the alternative for when they want something sweet? I make cakes and at times cookies for them at home. I make sure my bakes are devoid of refined flour and sugar and though I wouldn’t call myself a baker by any means, I have baked quite a few whole wheat cakes in the past few years.
So here are some things I’ve learnt while baking healthy whole wheat cakes. Hope they can help you too.
- Whole wheat flour tends to make cakes more dense than those baked with refined flour (maida). To make your whole wheat cakes more light and airy, you must sift the dry ingredients through a sifter (aata ki chalni) at least 3-4 times (the more the better). This will help incorporate air into your bake and make it spongy.
- Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature before baking – eggs, butter, milk, yoghurt etc.
- Since I don’t use refined white sugar at all, I alternate with other substitutes. Jaggery powder, liquid jaggery, coconut sugar, Dates (made into a paste), cane sugar, pure maple syrup and brown sugar are some of the sweeteners I’ve used over the years.
- A great way to make cakes more nutritious and pack in flavour at the same time is by adding seasonal fruit or veg. In Apple season (Aug-Oct) I make Apple cinnamon cakes. In winter it’s time for Carrot cakes (like you can see in the above picture). Banana and Pumpkin are some other fruits and vegetables that I’ve used often in my cakes. These are all also naturally sweet and help lessen them amount of sugar alternatives you need to add.
A great place to look up recipes for healthy cakes and other bakes is the Facebook Group ‘Ovenderful Mom Bakers Community’ founded and run by my friend Simran Oberoi Multani. It has a treasure trove of healthy bakes.
Do you bake healthy cakes or other desserts at home? What ingredients do you use? Let me know in the comments.
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