Just what the Doctor ordered

My doctor keeps on trying to get me to mend my ways and give up (in his words) the evils like sugar, chocolate and junk foods. This time around, he asked if I was so intent on baking, why I couldn't create something that meets his exacting standards. All he wanted was a cake with

- No eggs
- No refined flour
- No refined sugar (jaggery is fine)
- No chocolate

A tall order, it surely was! I first tried a couple of recipes from vegan cooking blogs, but nothing seemed to work for my tastebuds. Then, I decided to pick my favorite eggless chocolate cake recipe, keep the dry versus liquid ratios the same but substitute the "bad" ingredients with healthy ones. And in doing that, I seemed to have hit on one of the moistest and tastiest cakes I've encountered.

Here's how you can eat your cake and be healthy too.

Mix one cup whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup ground almonds, 1/2 cup jaggery (or dark brown sugar) and 1/2 tsp baking soda. In a microwave safe bowl, melt 40 grams butter. Peel and coarsely chop a small apple, then puree in a blender with 2/3 cup orange juice. You are looking for around 1 cup of apple + orange puree. Pour the fruit puree, melted butter and 1/2 tsp vanilla essence in the flour mixture. Add 1/2 tbsp vinegar and whisk until the batter is smooth.

This should fill 6 cupcake moulds, but I decided to make 4 cupcakes and use the rest of the batter to fill my mini tart tin (which is the one you see up there). Bake in an oven preheated to 180C for 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.