Polish Carrot Cake and Healthy Substitutions

A week ago, for the first time, I ran across Joanna´s The Heart Of The Matter food event. It struck me so much to read about the pain in her family that I immediately decided to participate. The reason why I started cooking was mainly due to the change of attitude towards food in my diet. I am sure a lot of people are this way. It is difficult to eat ready-made or fast food if 90 % of its ingredients gross you out.

I love being healthy and I love good food. But most of all, I like being my own chef (play on words here... Lots of languages use the word chef as in 'boss´). So cooking has become my addiction, a way to feel good and know myself better. Listening to what the body needs and satisfying what taste-buds like.

After reading Joanna´s heart-friendly baking ´restrictions´, I thought to myself: Wow, I´ve never thought of that, but I am a real heart-friendly baker. Even though I have tons of sweet recipes in my mind right now, I wanted to come up with something special and elegant looking. So, here is a contribution from the Slavic part of me:

POLISH CARROT CAKE:
(Polski tort z marchwi)

prep time: 90 minutes

• 115 ml honey
• 50 g margarine
• 75 g raisins
• 250 g grated carrots
• lemon zest
• 1 ripe banana
• 170 g wholegrain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 40 g ground poppy seeds
• 1/2 tsp five spice powder

• For the topping:
• 125 g Tofu
• 2 tsp honey
• essence (I like jasmine or vanilla)

The preparation is very easy. Mix together butter, honey and raisins. In a separate bowl, mash well the banana. Mix in other ingredients properly, adding them one at a time. Pour this batter into a non-sticking baking dish and place into preheated oven. Bake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes, then decrease the temperature to 150 and continue baking for another 30 minutes. The pie is ready, when it starts separating from the baking dish.

For the topping, blend together the tofu, essence and honey. Spread on the cake and slice ;-)

At the end, I would like to mention a few health-friendly cooking suggestions:

1. EGGS - unless whipped, use
1. mashed potatoes
2. bananas (Even they fluff up... sort of)
2. MILK - I don't ever drink cow milk, so it is natural for me to go with
1. soy milk
2. coconut milk
3. plain water (veggie broth eventually). These don't bake well, though.
   
3. SUGAR - If melting is required, I love to use dried dates (like in my morning porridge). Otherwise it is
   
1. brown sugar
2. honey
3. palm sugar
   
4. BUTTER - vegetable oils (palm, carrot, olive), margarine, or coconut fat work just fine.
5. CREAM - is heavy and fatty. No, no, no in cooking and especially no when baking.
1. yogurt -
   
2. buttermilk
6. FLOUR - countless varieties on this one
1. wholegrain flour (wheat, oat, rye,...) My favorite is spelt flour.
   
2. Chestnut flour (only when baking sweet)

See? There is no need to buy special cookbooks, just take a regular recipe and go for it. Cooking is not a rocket science and the recipes are quite forgiving...

Would you guys contribute some of your healthy substitutions, please?