I am really enjoying being super healthy at the minute. Now that I have more childcare I have joined a gym, I also bought a Nutribullet and I’m having a ‘blast’ with it (ooooh dear – in joke for Nutribullet owners, sorry!). I swear starting each day with a veg and fruit packed smoothie is making me feel motivated to exercise and generally eat really well for the rest of the day.
Being healthy for me doesn’t mean not eating cake though! I still love a cup of tea and a big slice of cake (I’ve replaced my builder’s tea with a soy milk vanilla chai – and I am loving it). I just want the cake to be healthier, that’s all. I am off dairy at the moment, hence the soy milk tea. A dairy-free diet is the latest experiment to try and self-manage my tummy troubles. Working so far so maybe I am actually lactose intolerant – a lot of people who have Colitis, which I have a mild form of called Proctitis, are lactose intolerant.
I digress! This dairy free and gluten free cake I came up with yesterday to fulfil an afternoon comfort food craving. It has coconut oil instead of butter, and buckwheat flour instead of plain flour (feel free to use whatever flour you like though if not avoiding gluten), as well as a veg fix via the carrots. It works so well. This cake is delicious, and really amazing warm and spread with almond butter.
Makes: a loaf that would slice into 10-12 pieces
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 55 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
150g coconut oil, melted
150g unrefined brown sugar
200g carrots, grated
200g buckwheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons soya milk (or almond milk)
1 generous tablespoon of poppy seeds
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 170C. Grease a 2lb loaf tin with coconut oil and dust with buckwheat flour – or line it with baking parchment.
- Simply mix the ingredients together and pour the batter into the cake tine.
- Bake for 55 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool a little in the tin, then tip out to finish cooling on a cake rack.
- Spread with almond butter to serve or simply enjoy on its own.
