Healthy Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes
As a kid, I absolutely adored pound cake — dense, moist and buttery rich pound cake. I mean, c’mon, what’s not to love?
But as I grew older, I found plenty of things to not love of my beloved pound cakes. For starters, the astronomical fat and calorie content! Despite that though, I still caved in at bakeries and the line at Starbucks for the perfectly displayed slices, knowing full well that I’d endure a sugar-rush and sugar-crash shortly after.
I always knew pound cake had sugar in it, and yeah, they were a little fatty, but they were treats! It was only when I discovered the real nutrition facts that I stopped purchasing the cakes.
Since everyone has heard of Starbucks, I thought I would share the nutrition facts of their Iced Lemon Pound Cake. One slice has 490 calories, 23g of fat (13g saturated) and 46g of sugar. No fiber, and only a tiny speck of protein.
^^ See the pretty vanilla bean speckles?
So I made my own pound cake — Healthy Whole Wheat Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes (slightly adapted from this one). I removed the extracts, added in vanilla paste and changed up a few ingredients for the ultimate pound cake — moist, decadent, and spewing vanilla essence.
With a soft texture and tender crumb, this cake is absolutely perfect! Not unbearably sweet so that your teeth will ache later, but just enough to satisfy your cravings. The focus of this cake is the warming, comforting vanilla flavor backed up with nutritional support 😉
These aren’t made with the typical “pound” of butter, “pound” of sugar, and “pound” of bleached, processed flour. These Healthy Whole Wheat Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes are made with whole wheat pastry flour, a small amount of sugar, and a few protein sources to keep you fuller for longer.
Healthy Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes
Ingredients
Pound Cakes:
- 240g (2 cups) Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- 48g (¼ cup) Granulated Erythritol (or dry sweetener of choice)
- 32g (¼ cup) Arrowroot Starch
- 30g (1 scoop) Unflavored Whey Protein Powder
- 1½ tsp Double-Acting Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 185g (¾ cup) Unsweetened Applesauce
- 182g (⅖ package) Lite Firm Tofu (drained and pressed of excess liquid)
- 112g (½ cup) Plain, Nonfat Greek Yogurt
- 42g (2 tbs) Agave Nectar
- 28g (2 tbs) Grapeseed Oil
- 2 tbs Vanilla Paste
- 2 tsp Liquid Stevia Extract
- 1 tsp Natural Butter Flavor
- ¾ tsp White Vinegar
Glaze:
- ⅓ cup Agave Nectar
- 1 tbs Vanilla Paste
Instructions
For the Pound Cakes:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit and spray two mini loaf pans with cooking spray.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, erythritol, arrowroot starch, whey protein, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a blender, add the applesauce, tofu, yogurt, agave, oil, vanilla paste, stevia extract, and butter flavor. Puree until smooth. Pour into a large bowl.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold together until ALMOST mixed through.
- Add the vinegar and finish mixing, being careful not to overmix. Scoop batter into prepared pans and spread out the surface. Bake for ~33 minutes at 325 degrees, then reduce temperature to 275 and bake for ~10 minutes. When the surface of the cakes spring back when tapped, they are ready. Remove cakes from the pans and let cool completely. Slice each loaf.
For the Glaze:
- Stir together the ingredients in a small bowl and drizzle a bit over each slice before serving. Enjoy!
Did you see the nutrition label??
OH. My. GOSH.
120 calories for a slice of pound cake?! 2.5g of fat for this buttery decadence?! Um, feel free to take two (or even three) slices. This pound cake is also a great breakfast option, just omit the glaze and top with a dollop of nonfat greek yogurt, some chopped strawberries and a drizzle of agave.
Why have cereal when you can have cake?
.
With love and good eats,
.
– Jess
.
Indulge − no strings attached!
Modifying a pound cake to get it down to something more healthy with a minimal amount of fat and sugar can be rather difficult. Kudos to you for all the effort here. Your cake does look delicious-enough so all the fat and calories will not be missed. Happy Friday!
Wow I can see how moist this is from the pictures! Yum!
I just bought some vanilla paste. Now I know what to do with it! Thank you, Thank you!
P.S – I got my Madagascar Vanilla paste from: http://www.beanilla.com/vanilla/vanilla-paste
This recipe looks Divine!
I’m with you – pound cake is so good, but so bad for you! I am FOR SURE going to make this soon… Question, though: I’m vegan, and need to sub something for the whey. What do you recommend? Or should I just omit it?
I haven’t made this without the whey so I’m not sure of the best way to sub it, all I know is that you shouldn’t omit it. I find that the whey makes a firmer/dryer cake, so that’s why a lot of applesauce/moistening ingredients are needed. To substitute, I would try adding 2 more tablespoons of arrowroot starch, 2 more tablespoons of whole wheat pastry flour, and 2 more tablespoons of erythritol. For the greek yogurt, you can use vegan greek yogurt (I’ve seen them at whole foods, I think it’s made from soy or coconut)… I hope this works! Please let me know if it does 🙂
I’ve read that sugar substitutes such as Splenda have about 100 calories/cup. Have you included that in your nutritional analysis?
I use erythritol, which has the least calories in comparison to xylitol, splenda (which contains dextrose), and other sugar substitutes, at 12 calories per 1/4 cup. I included the 12 calories and 3g of carbohydrates to the nutritional analysis.
Do you have any substitutes for the whey protein powder? I don’t have it :/
I’m sorry, I’m not sure if there is a good substitute. The protein powder provides structure and texture to the cakes :/
Hi!
Just to let you know that I did this cake and it came out wonderful!!. For the first time in my life I’ve been able to come up with a low-fat cake that is spongy, moist and made of whole wheat flour.
I used brown rice flour instead of arrowroot starch (same amount) and used cake flour + fine oat bran to mimic the whole wheat pastry flour (we cannot find WW pastry flour).
Thanks A LOT for revealing the magic!!!!!
Next time, I’ll try to play with this recipe so that I can avoid agave and yogurt (so that the ingredient list is shorter and cheaper)
Have a greaaat day!
Javi
Javi-
YAY I’m so glad those substitutions worked out for you! Good idea with the brown rice flour, I’ll have to try that next time 🙂
I’m not sure I know of a good substitution for the yogurt, but the agave can be replaced with honey, pure maple syrup, brown rice syrup, or possibly even more yogurt.
Thanks and I hope you have a great day as well! 🙂
-Jess
I only have one large loaf pan instead of two mini ones. How do you think should I increase the cooking time? Thanks!
Hmmm, I haven’t tried it but I think the baking time should be around 40 minutes. When the surface of the cake springs back when tapped, it should be done! Hope you like the cake 🙂
-Jess
Thanks! I just made it today, I used the large loaf pan for 40 minutes and it tastes so delicious! 😀
YAY I’m so happy you like the cake!! I’m glad the larger loaf pan worked out okay 🙂
-Jess
What does arrowroot starch do when incorporated in this recipe?
Jules-
Well, you know how cake flour is really good for cakes rather than regular all purpose flour? It’s actually because of the added starch! The starch helps provide the cake with some lift, a soft texture and a moist crumb.
However, cake flour is really processed and bleached so I used a mixture of whole wheat pastry flour and starch 🙂
-Jess
Pingback: How to Make Sugar Free Strawberry Jam | low carb, vegan, paleo, fat free