This cake’s sunshine-y sweet flavor is reminiscent of the Sunshine State. And to make sure I got the flavor just right, I used not from concentrate Florida’s Natural^® Brand Orange Juice. It’s the perfect juice because it’s made entirely from Florida oranges grown by actual farmers. Just how juice is supposed to be! It feels great to be able to buy high-quality juice. My kids can tell right away when they are drinking juice that comes from concentrate. There really is a difference. To be honest, it really doesn’t even taste like real orange juice. But not-from-concentrate, straight from the carton? They’ll finish the whole glass!

For the cake, I thought about adding a little bit of vanilla extract into the batter but I refrained from doing so, because I wanted a powerful citrus flavor. So glad I did that! The cake tasted really rich and orange, just like I wanted. I also used whole wheat pastry flour, because it makes cakes light and airy, unlike regular whole wheat flour. However, this cake can also be made gluten free.

The glaze was made using maple syrup, Florida’s Natural orange juice and orange zest. I must say it was the best glaze I have ever made. Most glaze recipes use confectioner’s sugar, however, maple syrup is a better option, so try making it this way instead.

To be honest, from start to finish (especially while making the batter) this cake doesn’t take that long to prepare. My kids were even able to help, as they like to get in the kitchen with me while baking.

I wish I had doubled the batch for this Orange Glazed Cake, because it was a hit! I shared it with my kids and my roommates back in school. I am going back home over the weekend and this cake is the first thing I am going to be making, per their request. Next time, I’ll add in some dark chocolate, too, for that classic orange-and-chocolate combo. I think it will turn out pretty good, and my roommates will still enjoy it!

I really hope you get to make this cake. You will be surprised at the great flavor.

Enjoy!

This recipe is sponsored by Florida’s Natural. The opinions and text are all mine. The end.

Orange glaze cake

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

Cake Batter

• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup not-from-concentrate Florida’s Natural^® brand orange juice
• 1 teaspoon aluminum free baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon aluminum free baking soda
• 1/2 cup coconut oil melted
• 1/2 cup unrefined sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 2 organic eggs
• 1//4 cup sliced almonds

Orange Glaze

• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 2 tbsp not-from-concentrate Florida’s Natural^® brand orange juice
• 2 teaspoons orange zest

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a square cake pan.

In a mixing bowl, use a wire whisk to combine eggs, juice, sugar, orange zest, orange juice and oil. Add flour, baking soda and baking powder.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the almonds over the top. Bake until golden, 30-40 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool for 20-30 minutes, then turn onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Whisk together the maple syrup, zest and orange juice and pour over cake.

To make the cake I used whole wheat pastry flour, however, I am sure you could make it gluten free if you like. When I don't bake gluten free, whole wheat pastry flour is the flour that I like to use most. It makes cakes light and airy, unlike regular whole wheat flour.

 

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I actually used a Jumbo muffin pan to bake these banana bread chocolate muffins but you can perfectly used a regular size muffin pan and get about 10-12 out of the batter. For me, baking jumbo size ones takes less time, since there are less muffin liners to fill, so that is what I choose.

These banana bread chocolate muffins are not that sweet at all. I hate super sweet bake goods. You can’t taste nothing but sugar so that is why I always bake all of our goodies, way healthier and better for you.

I used Truvia Brown Sugar Blend for my diabetic friends. Last month I made a ricotta blueberry cake and today, this dessert is for you. The calories coming from the sweetener will be less as well! A win win.

I am also switching to use cacao powder instead of cocoa powder that is process and less concentrated when it comes to the minerals that real cacao provides. It is a bit more pricy but worth every penny for me. You can use either one, the recipe will work with any of them.

On another note, I am about to get all my stuff ready to move up North in the next 6 weeks for P.A school for at least a year. A bit scary because I will leave my family and everything behind. It is going to be a huge sacrifice so I hope it pays off big time later on. I really hope so because the next 2 years are going to be nothing but hard work. I will tell you more about it once I am there!

Anyways, if you want to bake something that is easy and healthier I suggest you make these banana bread chocolate muffins. They are to die for and I am sure you will like them as much as we did.

Enjoy!

Banana bread chocolate muffins

Miryam' original recipe

Yield: 6 jumbo muffins

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 1/4 cup Truvia brown sugar blend (or 1/3 cup coconut sugar)
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup Greek yogurt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp aluminum free baking soda

Topping

• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 tbs coconut oil

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a Jumbo muffin pan with muffin liners and set aside.

In a mixing bowl or a stand mixer add the bananas, vanilla, yogurt, eggs, coconut oil and sugar. Combine until you obtain a homogenus mixture.

Add the flour, cacao powder and baking soda and combine with the wet ingredients.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. If you do regular size muffins the baking time would be less. Maybe about 20 minutes! Remove muffins from the baking pan and transfer them to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

On a save microwave bowl melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil. Dip each muffin in the melted chocolate mixture and top with nuts, shredded coconut, cacao nibs or whatever you like.

NOTE: You can use a regular muffin pan and obtain about 10-12 muffins instead.

Left: Jumbo size                                                           Right: Regular size

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I love the flavor of Baileys and since I had some on hand I figured I use it for both the cake batter and then frosting. This type of drink goes perfectly with chocolate so I thought, why not?

If you don’t like Baileys or would like a virgin version I will give other alternatives in the recipe so don’t worry about it and make an alcohol free version.

It has been a long time since I have made a chocolate cake of any kind so my kids were pretty exited. Yes I let my kids had a piece of the cake, I don’t think that is going to kill them, so there…

When you make the frosting just be patient, it will become nice a thick for you to spread over the cake. It will just take sometime especially if it sits at room temperature. If you like you can place it in the fridge for 10 minutes to speed up the process, that is what I did. Just make sure that the  cake is completely cooled when you place spread it. I didn’t wait for my cake to cool all the way and it made it harder to spread so don’t do what I did. I was not patient as I wanted to dig in already…

Where there isn’t much to say about this baileys chocolate cake. If you like chocolate cake you are going to love this version.

P.S: This is not your average sweet treat. Indulging once in a while is part of life. Don’t start freaking out about the nutrition facts. If you like something healthier skip this cake. For me, having something like this once in a blue moon is OK. Keeping it real over here!

Enjoy!

Baileys chocolate cake

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 8 servings

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 1/2 cup Baileys
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 tsp aluminum free baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp aluminum free baking powder
• 1 tsp Mexican vanilla extract

Ganache

• 1 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup Baileys
• 1 tbs coconut oil
• 2 tsp Mexican vanilla extract

 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Line the bottom of an 8 inch round cake pan with unbleached parchment paper and grease the sides with coconut oil. Set aside.

In a microwave safe bowl add the chocolate chips, Baileys, sugar, coconut oil and cocoa powder. Melt at 30 second intervals until the chocolate in completely melted. Stir and make sure you obtain a homogenous mixture.

Let the chocolate mixture cool. With a wire whisk, add eggs one at a time, and combine.

Add the flour, vanilla, baking powder and baking soda. Fold with a spatula and transfer batter to the prepared baking pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes. I baked mine for 35 minutes. Let the cake cool completely before adding the ganache to it.

On the meantime, prepare the ganache. Add the ganache ingredients to a microwave safe bowl and melt at 30 second intervals until the chocolate is almost melted. Stir the mixture and let it sit at room temperature until you obtain a spreadable consistency. Alternatively you can speed up this process by placing the mixture in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes.

Spread the ganache over the cake and serve.

NOTE: If you would like a virgin version of this cake use heavy cream for the frosting and any milk of choice for the cake batter in place of the Baileys.

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My kids totally love pancakes so when I told them I was making quinoa pancakes they were a little bit taken back. That only lasted for so long because the minute they try them they didn’t care anymore.

I love using quinoa when ever possible because it is full of protein, rich in B-vitamins, fiber, and it is gluten free… and lets not forget it tastes great. I also use quinoa for some recipes that call for brown rice. I use quinoa instead and it works like a charm.

Have you tried quinoa before? I have several friends that have never tried it before. To me that is odd but I guess not everyone is into food like I am.

As always, you can serve these quinoa pancakes however you wish. When it comes to toppings pancakes are very versatile so get creative. I used some pecans and plane old maple syrup which in my book is just perfect. Maybe some added fresh fruit will be great as well. I have seen many elaborate pancake toppings but in my house we just keep our pancakes simple.

To get the recipe for this quinoa pancakes visit my friends at Nuts.com. Don’t forget to browse around for any other heath ingredients you may need for your baking and cooking. They have a large variety of healthy flours, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and much more.

Enjoy!

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While you can use all-purpose flour, with whole wheat pastry flour this pancake will turn out just fine. My first try didn’t come out good at all because I used too much sugar and then I also added some pumpkin puree to the batter which made it too heavy for it to rise and bubble up.

Whole wheat pastry flour works best for these pumpkin spice whole wheat dutch baby pancake. Don’t use regular whole wheat flour because it is heavier and the pancakes may not puff up and bubble at all.

You can serve these pancakes with any fresh fruit you like. I used fresh blueberries. Fruit is naturally sweet so you don’t have to add any extra sweetener if you don’t like.

I have purchased two smaller cast iron pans so that I can make these again in a smaller version. I love the fact that these are so much easier than conventional pancakes. All you do is mix-in the ingredients together to get a batter, which literally takes two minutes, and then you just place the batter in the cast iron pan and bake it in the oven. So much easier!

For this recipe all you need to sweetened the batter is about 1 tablespoon of Truvia® Brown Sugar Blend. You don’t want the batter to be too sweet since you will be adding some fruit later on and that will sweetened the pancakes even more.

I hope you like this recipe. I am going to be making these pumpkin spice whole wheat dutch baby pancakes over and over agin. They are so much easier than regular conventional ones.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin spice whole wheat dutch baby pancake

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice
• 1 tbs coconut oil
• 1 tbsp Truvia brown sugar blend

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Place a 12 inch cast iron pan in the oven and let it get hot while the oven preheats.

Mix all the ingredients together, except the coconut oil, in a mixing bowl until frothy. Do not over beat. Take the cast iron out of the oven and add the coconut oil to it. Swirl the coconut oil to cover the bottom of the pan.

Pour batter into the pan (the batter will bubble up around the edges) and place back in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the pancake has puffed up and it is completely cooked. Serve immediately with fruit.

The post Pumpkin spice whole wheat dutch baby pancake appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

I did have a few leftover waffles, which I did freeze and had them on subsequent days, but not as many as I would have liked. Like pancakes, waffles freeze really well, so if you like to make some extra and freeze a few go ahead. It will save you some time later on.

I decided to make these whole wheat chocolate waffles with whole wheat pastry flour to increase the fiber content as well as coconut sugar, which its glycemic index is lower. I also used coconut oil instead of butter, since coconut oil is much healthier. Its saturated fat composition is different, as it gets digested differently in the body.

I also used Silk Unsweetened Almond milk. I don’t use dairy milk but normally almond, coconut or cashew milk. These are my favorite flavors and because they are super creamy with no added sugar, it is Non-GMO, and has no artificial colors, or flavors, I like to use them for myself and the kids. I also love the fact that is lactose free and it has 50% more calcium than dairy milk.

You can visit Silk’s page and learn more about Silk products, or if you like you can sign for their newsletter and receive coupons as well as their latest news here. They also have dairy free products, creamers, dairy free yogurt and much more. You will also find plenty of recipes in their website so go ahead and check them out.

I am planning to make different types of waffle recipes in the upcoming months. My kids love having them over the weekend. With a tall glass of almond milk they are good to go for a while until lunch. The fall is just around the corner so I am planning of making some pumpkin waffles. This time around I will probably make them gluten free so stay tuned for those.

I hope you get to make these whole wheat chocolate waffles. They are excellent for breakfast, as a treat or a mid-day snack for anyone.

Enjoy!

Whole wheat chocolate waffles

Miryam's original reicipe

Yield: 8 large waffles

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 4 tsp aluminum free baking powder
• Pinch of celtic salt
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

 

Directions:

In a stand mixer, add the eggs, almond milk, vanilla extract, melted coconut oil, and sugar. Mix through until combined. Add the pastry flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt.

Pre-heat your waffle maker. When ready pour 1/4 cup of the mixture in your waffle maker. Cook until light brown. Serve with maple syrup or chocolate sauce!

This conversation is sponsored by Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

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