(Healthy) Gingerbread Cake

I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since my last update! It’s not that I haven’t been cooking all this time (I have recipes and articles backed up en queue to be posted), but I got completely overwhelmed with the upcoming move, and a really big contract on the work front at the same time. I’ll try to post as many things as I can in the next week. After that, updates will be a bit sporadic as we settle in to our new state and look for a home.

Here’s a recipe for gingerbread cake that happens to be healthy. It called for a chocolate frosting, for which I was not in the mood. But by that point, I had been sold on the idea of dressing up the cake a bit, so I made a simple lemon glaze (lemon juice from the zested lemon and powdered sugar) to go with it; I highly recommend it.

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
½ cup apple sauce
½ cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1 cup (lactose-free) milk

Preheat oven to 350 °F and place rack in center of oven. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan. Set aside.

In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Set aside.

In a separate bowl of your electric mixer, beat the applesauce and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the lemon zest and molasses and beat to combine. Add the dry ingredients and milk, alternately, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat just until incorporated.






Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing cake from pan. Let cool completely and then frost or glaze, if desired.