Recipe: Nutty Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

If you want to make a carrot cake to rival the Cheesecake Factory's version, but with less fat and calories, here is a great recipe to try. Substituting buttermilk for oil creates a moist, tender cake, with less fat and none of the trans-fats contained in vegetable oil. Choose reduced fat cream cheese, and you'll still get that creamy taste you crave, but with fewer calories. Dress it up with some additional walnuts on top, or just eat it with cream cheese frosting - either way, it's a tasty treat you can enjoy without leaving home!

Nutty Cream Cheese Carrot Cake

Ingredients:

Carrot cake (Photo credit: angrydicemoose)

Cake:
2 cups all-purpose Flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup regular table (granulated) sugar
3 large eggs
3/4 cup butter milk
3 medium size carrots, grated
1/2 cup chopped Walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
4 oz pkg reduced fat (Neufchatel) cream cheese, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Dressed Up Topping:
1/4 cup finely chopped Walnuts
2 Tbsp light brown sugar (packed)

Instructions:

Cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 9 inch round cake pan first with a light coating of grease then sprinkle in flour, coat evenly, then tap pan so excess flour falls out; set aside.
2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; set aside. 
3. In a mixing bowl with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugar and cream together at a medium speed until light and fluffy, then with mixer running, add one of the eggs, mixing until combined, then add another egg, mixing to combine, then add the final egg, mixing to combine.
4. Turn the mixer down to the low speed, then slowly start adding the dry ingredients in small batches, alternating in between each batch by adding some of the buttermilk.  Do this in about 3 steps - flour, milk, flour, milk, flour, milk, mixing until combined well.
5. Remove bowl from mixer and stir in the grated carrots and chopped walnuts until combined well; then pour this batter into your prepared cake pan. 
6. Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched with your finger or when a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean; remove and place cake pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.
7. Turn cake upside down to release it from the cake pan and continue to cool on the rack until completely cooled.

Cream cheese frosting:

• With an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together butter and cream cheese until very smooth.  With mixer running, add vanilla extract and then confectioners sugar and continue beating until very smooth and fluffy.

Dressed up topping:

• In a bowl, mix together walnuts and brown sugar with a whisk or fork.
• To assemble; place cake on cake plate and spread frosting on top and up the sides, then sprinkle with the dressed up topping all over or just on the top.

Better Than Cheescake Factory: Decadent Desserts Get A Healthier Makeover

If you want a cheesecake at least as good as the one your grandmother used to make, a trip to the Cheesecake Factory may be in order. With hundreds of fantastic desserts on the menu, your taste buds will soon be dancing merrily about. But, if eating healthier and weight loss are your goals this year, why not find an alternative. Yes, you can have your cake and eat healthy, too. Plan ahead, take a few minutes, and create a healthier alternative in your own kitchen - with a few little tweaks, you can make your own versions taste just as good, but they'll be a lot better for you!

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake in pan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The average carrot cake has almost 1500 calories per slice. Yes, you read right. More than half of the daily intake of calories for an adult male football player in one delectable slice of what sounds like a healthy dessert! There has got to be a way to enjoy this moist, delicious dessert without adding all those calories to your day's intake.

To start with, a simple substitution of buttermilk can make a world of difference. Rather than adding oil when making the cake as it calls for in the recipe, you can substitute buttermilk. Buttermilk sounds fattening but it actually has much less fat and calories than oil.  In fact, buttermilk even has less fat and calories than regular whole milk which makes it a healthier choice for the icing, too - and it will add a richer, fuller flavor at the same time. You'll end up with a moist cake and tasty frosting with fewer calories and fat. So, yes, this is one classic cake you can enjoy with less guilt if you tweak the recipe and make it at home.

Warm Apple Crisp

What about that wonderful warm apple crisp topped with creamy rich vanilla ice cream?  Of course, substituting frozen vanilla yogurt is the most obvious substitution for a healthier dessert (although watch out for nasty substitutions which turn up in lowfat ice cream substitutes, such as chemical sweeteners and propylene glycol - aka antifreeze), but there is something else to consider. The biggest culprit of added calories is the apple crisp itself. This healthy-sounding dessert has almost three times as many calories and grams of sugar than that topping of real ice cream.  So we want to start from the bottom up when talking about making a healthier alternative to this tasty dessert.

apple crisp (Photo credit: elana's pantry)

To put the skinny on your apple crisp, start by eliminating that can of apple pie filling. Instead, simply cut up fresh ripe apples. If that sounds like too much work, an apple cutter that slices the apple into wedges in one motion would be just the ticket.  They can be found in many stores and are very inexpensive. For an even tastier creation, choose a variety of apples. You'll find different tastes and textures in different apples.  And, using a sweeter apple will allow you to reduce the sugar in your recipe even more. There's nothing better than homemade from scratch apple crisp - even the Cheesecake Factory's version can't stack up!

Cheesecake

In order to keep your cheesecake on the healthier side at home, try using low-fat cream cheese, and make your own crust from graham crackers. Low-fat cream cheese is one of the few reduced fat items which actually taste as good as the full-fat version. In fact, I actually like it (Neufchatel) better, because it's softer, so it's a bit easier to work with. You also don't need nearly as much sugar in cheesecake as many recipes call for. Cutting down some of the sugar will in many cases actually make it taste better - not to mention much better for you. Being able to control your ingredients is the biggest way to manage your healthy diet when it comes to desserts.

Just because you want to eat healthier doesn't mean you have to skip out on desserts all together. You can have the best experience possible by taking the time and experimenting to find what works best for you and your health goals. Whether it is carrot cake, warm apple crisp, or the all-time favorite classic cheesecake, when you use the proper ingredients and make it yourself, you can enjoy these desserts without ruining your healthy diet. You may even find these newer versions of the classic desserts actually taste better!