(aka…my birthday cake dessert of choice!)
So I’m finally getting around to posting this now. Hey, it’s only a week late – better late than never, right?
As I mentioned, I completely intended to follow Stella’s (The Witchy Kitchen’s) recipe for Mango & Coconut Cake. Not only did it sound and look delicious (as you may very well know – I’m a sucker for anything coconut, and I had recently discovered the deliciousness that is mango.) but it was already quite healthy! Considering it was my birthday I wasn’t so concerned about having a healthy cake, but I wouldn’t have complained.
As I continued looking the recipe over, I decided a banana would be good to add too – give it even more of a tropical twist! And then I realized, that often times – fruit purees can be used as a sub for oil. So I figured, hey, why not just omit the oil and sub the banana, anyways? And that’s what I did. And then, of course, I wanted to play even more and just turn them into fun cupcake-and-yogurt parfaits. Maybe not your traditional birthday dessert, but everyone loved them. And I got them to eat chia seeds.
For the Cupcakes:
original recipe here
Ingredients:
-1 1/4 c. white whole wheat flour
-3 T. stevia
-2 T. honey
-1 1/2 t. baking soda
-1/4 t. salt
-1/2 t. ginger
-1/4 t. chai spice blend
-1/2 mango, diced
-scant 3/4 c. almondmilk
-1 medium banana, mashed (should yield approx. 1/3 cup)
-1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
-coconut (to sprinkle on top)
Destructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350*.
2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients, omitting the coconut. (note: you could add in coconut, as well – if my sister wasn’t “on the fence” about coconut, I would have.)
2. In another medium-sized bowl, whisk together your wet ingredients, omitting your diced mango.
3. Combine your wet and dry, and then fold in your diced mango.
4. Spray with non-stick spray 12 medium muffin cups and divide the batter evenly amongst them.
Sprinkle coconut on top (optional) and bake for approx 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from tins, and allow to cool on a cooling rack! And obviously, as always – taste-test one or two to make sure they’re…you know…cooked all the way. Right? Right.
Omitting the oil worked out fine – they were still perfectly moist and – well – dreamy! If I were to make these again today, I think I’d even add in some dried papaya that I’ve got hangin’ out in my cupboard, as well as some crystallized ginger. Because I’m that kinda gal.
You could, of course, stop there and just devour these as-is. In fact, that’s how most of them were eaten – but for my birthday dessert, I took them one step further and made up a lime chia-yogurt pudding and layered it with some fresh fruit to make a deliciously refreshing parfait.
For the Parfait Yogurt:
Ingredients:
–1/2 c. plain greek yogurt
-1/4 c. almondmilk
-2 t. chia seeds
-1/4 t. vanilla extract
-1/4 t. chai spice blend
-1 T. honey
-zest of 1 lime
(I also think I used the juice of half of it? But I didn’t write that down. Take that for what it’s worth, haha.)
Destructions:
Just combine everything! Adjust the sweetness to your taste. Also – this will not give you enough yogurt to make all 12 muffins into parfaits. I got five – and could have used a little more since it was so dang good!
To Construct the Parfait:
Additional Ingredients:
–sliced straberries
-sliced kiwis
-poppyseeds
-lime zest
-shredded coconut
Layer to your hearts content! I topped with a sprinkle of lime zest and poppyseeds (hey – I think it was a mind trick – they thought the chia seeds were poppyseeds! Honestly, though – chia seeds have such a fun texture, and are an easy way to sneak in some extra nutrition for those people who think you’re a health nut who lives on rabbit food. If you have them, definitely use them! No one needs to know. But tell them after they rave, aight?)
Enjoy!
Healthy Exposures 