Healthy and Easy Sweet Snacks For Pregnant & Mom

The BEST Healthy Lemon Blueberry Cake 

This lemon blueberry cake is a moist and fluffy lemon cake bursting with blueberries and topped with a vegan cream cheese frosting! Perfect for a dessert, afternoon tea or a cheeky breakfast- no butter, no eggs, and no milk needed!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour gluten free, if needed
• 1 cup sugar white, brown, coconut, or sugar free subs * See notes
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 5 tbsp oil of choice canola, vegetable, or any neutral flavored oil
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup blueberries fresh or frozen
• 1/2 cup frosting of choice optional

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line an 8-inch cake pan with cooking spray and set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients and mix well. Add your wet ingredients and mix until combined. Fold through your blueberries.
• Transfer the cake batter into the lined cake pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan completely, before frosting, if desired.

Notes

For a layer cake, double the ingredients. For a triple layer cake, triple the ingredients.Frosting is optional. This cake tastes delicious sans frosting.* For a sugar free cake, replace the sugar with monk fruit sweetener or erythritol. TO STORE: Blueberry Lemon Cake needs to be stored in the fridge, as it will spoil at room temperature. Keep cake in a sealed container or covered in plastic wrap. Storing the cake this way will ensure the cake will keep for at least 5 days. TO FREEZE: Leftover cake slices can be placed in a ziplock bag and stored in the freezer for up to 2 months. 

For more details about this recipe click here.

DARK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE TART

Ingredients

For the crust

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (I used Nabisco famous wafers, and used about 3/4 of the package)
• 4 tbsp butter, melted

For the ganache

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 12 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I used 8 ounces bittersweet and 4 ounces semisweet, but feel free to use whatever you like)
• 4 tbsp butter, room temperature, cut into 1 tablespoon-ish pieces.
• 1 tbsp flaky sea salt

For the whipped cream

• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 pinch salt
• granulated sugar or powdered sugar, to taste (I used about 1 tsp granulated sugar)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• To make the crust, grind the chocolate wafers in a food processor and measure out 1 1/2 cups. Combine with the melted butter until everything is evenly moistened and the mixture feels like wet sand.
• Press the crust into a 10-inch tart pan with a removeable bottom, and up the sides, making sure it is well packed in and even. Using the bottom of a flat measuring cup helps.
• Bake the crust for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool.
• To make the ganache, heat the heavy cream in a saucepan until it is just starting to simmer.
• Remove from the heat and add the chopped chocolate, and let sit for a few minutes. (Exactly how long will depend on how big your chocolate pieces are. The smaller the pieces, the more quickly they will melt. You want to err on the side of not letting the cream cool down too much so that the ganache is still warm and will pour smoothly.)
• Whisk together the chocolate and cream until the mixture is smooth and shiny. Add the butter, a couple pieces at a time, whisking well.
• Pour the ganache into the prepared tart shell. Carefully place the tart in the refrigerator to set for at least 2 hours before slicing. Scatter the sea salt over the top of the tart when it has set so that it doesn’t sink in to the chocolate.
• Tip: if you’re worried about your knife sticking to the fudgey chocolate filling while slicing, running your knife under hot water and wiping it clean just before slicing will help get a nice clean slice.
• To make the whipped cream, whip the cream, vanilla paste, salt and sugar together until it forms soft peaks.

Notes

For a gluten free version of this tart, use your favorite gluten free cookie to make the crust.For a dairy free version, use coconut cream in place of dairy cream, and coconut oil in place of butter.  The flavor will of course be very coco-nutty in that case. 

For more details about this recipe click here.