My Wellness Presentation, Apple, Blueberry & Walnut Bread

So about a week ago now I had my first ever Juice Plus Wellness Presentation, a friend of mine, De and I have kinda, sorta gone into business together.  As she is the charismatic speaker, she did the nutrition presentation and she did a wonderful job, even if I do say so myself.  I am biased, because I love her to bits - she's passionate, energetic and relentless about her nutrition, fitness and health and that of her family and so, in this way (and several others) we are like minded.

Anyways moving along... I made a cake, from a recipe that I cut out of a magazine and put in my recipe book thinking... hmmm it's quite healthy, but how do I make it into a cake that I could eat, with low saturated fat - ie no eggs and dairy?

My low saturated fat version was a resounding success because everyone loved it, including my six year old daughter!  I experiemented with putting in my left over wet almond meal in it as well, because I really hate throwing all that lovely almond goodness in the bin or feeding it to my (ok, yes - deserving) chooks.  I'm not 100% about exact measurements of what I added, but I will give it my best shot ok...

Here is the orginal ingredients list

2 cups of plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup caster sugar
1 punnet fresh blueberries, or 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
2 peeled, cored and grated green apples
3/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts
125g melted butter
2 lightly beaten eggs
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp demerara sugar

Here is my ingredients list

1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup raw sugar (could even use less, I will next time)
About 3/4 cup frozen blueberries
2 peeled, cored and grated red apples ('cause thats all I had)
3/4 cup broken up raw walnuts (I didn't have time to activate or chop them)
125g olive oil (not extra virgin as its not suitable to heat)
1/4 cup home made almond milk
1 tsp natural vanilla extract (you could use vanilla beans paste)
All the almond meal left from one cup of almonds after making almond milk (make sure there is not a drop of moisture left in the meal)
2 tsp raw sugar

AND for my egg replacement I did this with vinegar, water and baking powder:

Mix one tablespoon each of white vinegar and water in a glass.  To this add one teaspoon of baking powder and stir well until the mixture blends and finishes fizzing. Then just replace the eggs with it!  This can be used when you need to replace more than one egg in your cake recipes... apparently.

Check out this egg replacement page... http://chefinyou.com/egg-substitutes-cooking/  -  it's handy!

Method with my Ingredients  

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (356 fahrenheit).
Light grease (I use canola spray oil) loaf tin (about 10 x 20cm) and line the base with baking paper.

Mix flours, baking powder and cinnamon in a large bowl together.  Add sugar, blueberries, apples, walnuts and almond meal.  Remember to reserve some walnuts for the top of your cake.

In a jug mix together the oil, milk and vanilla.  Gently fold into flour mixture until combined.
Add in your egg replacement and gently fold again until well combined.

Tip mixture into the loaf pan.  Top with reserved walnuts and sprinkle on the 2 teaspoons of raw sugar, although if you wanted you could skip the sugar on top.

Bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes - after this time keep checking every 5 minutes until your skewer comes out clean (I can't remember exactly how long it took with the addition of the wet almond meal).

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.  The recipe says cool completely before scoffing, but it was delicious when still warm.

I didn't heat the cake on the evening of the wellness presentation, but again the recipe says that the cake is delicious toasted with your favourite topping.

I'm no chef... but I am not scared to experiment in the kitchen as, for me partaking in a low saturated fat lifestyle there just isn't that many recipes around...  What's the worst that could happen?  Your kids hate it - so you get the whole lot to yourself or worse still, it's completely unedible and you chuck it in the bin and start again!!!   Personally I have never had this happen!  Do some research about your experiements - google is your friend and teacher and use your comon sense.

I have halved the sugar in this recipe and gone for the least processed sugar I had available.  You can pretty much half the sugars in all your cake recipes without a problem - at least I have never had any problems.  You could use unprocessed honey, maple syrup or any other NATURAL sweetner in its least processed form.  DO NOT let me hear that you have used an insecticide artifical sweetner - unless of course you want to die a slow and painful death.  No joke - look it up. 

I don't mind using a little sugar in my recipes, because I have made the cake or whatever myself and thus I know what I have put in it.  There are no mysterous numbers that we are supposed to believe are food.  I am making a huge shift away from processed food - they are killing us and making our kids sick and miserable.

Ok off my soap box and good luck with your yummy cake and cake experiments.  xx