Healthy Cooking: Pumpkin Spice Cake

     For my last healthy eating post, I wanted to try something a bit different. My family isn't usually the dessert/pastry type when it comes to what they make. We never really take time to make desserts in our house, but when we do, it isn't really good for us.

    I decided that my last dish to try out would be a dessert and hopefully open my families eyes to what good and healthy pastries are actually like. For this particular experiment, I decided to try the Pumpkin Spice Cake. It turned out to be everything that it promised, "fresh, healthy and rich-tasting" (Clendinen, 29)

Ingredients

- 3 cups of all purpose flour
- 2 cups of granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tablespoon of baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon of salt
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 cup of coconut oil (much healthier than regular canola)
- 1/2 cup of fat-free milk
- 1 can of pumpkin puree (15 oz)
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup of confectioners' sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice (to apply after)


    Desserts can be sort of tricky when it comes to healthy cooking. There are many small tweaks to put on the ingredients to insure that it will actually be a healthy meal. For example, I switched canola oil for coconut oil, and regular milk for fat-free.

Preparations:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 10-cup Bundt pan, sprinkle with flour and tap out any excess. Place the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and allspice in a large bowl and whisk to blend them completely; set aside. Place the sugar, vegetable oil and coconut oil in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed for about one minute to blend ingredients thoroughly. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the mashed pumpkin and blend thoroughly. Add the reserved flour mixture and beat the mixture at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and even. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 60-70 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the pan to a cake rack to cool for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack and cool completely.