An upside down lemon and blood orange upside down cake – aka the perfect birthday cake.

This cake has made my day on several occasions in the past weeks – I made it for my boyfriend’s birthday, then again when my aunt and cousins visited a couple of days ago, and I also made it for the local newspaper yesterday. It was always a hit, not just because it looks incredibly pretty. Almost too pretty to eat I feel. But it definitely has to be enjoyed with friends, so you really need to make plans with your loved ones this weekend and serve them this lemon and blood orange upside down cake this upcoming weekend.

If you do not fancy a pretty cake, but rather want a simple yet healthy and delicious cake, then this recipe if definitely for you. It’s not necessary to turn it into an upside down cake, you can simply use the batter to make a regular cake. You can probably through it together within 10 minutes, and it only needs a little bit more than 30 minutes in the oven, so it’s almost a last-minute-cake.

In terms of ingredients we are talking major health alert – ground almonds for vitamin E (hello pretty skin, nail and hair), polenta for beta-carotene (hello healthy eyes) and is an amazing naturally gluten-free flour), coconut blossom sugar (hello blood sugar control). That’s the majority of ingredients and can be bought in any regular supermarket. The cake gets its decadent citrus flavor through real lemon and blood orange zest and juice, which give it its signature flavor.

You really cannot do anything wrong with this cake, and you will be the hero amongst your friends this weekend, I promise!

Enjoy!

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

The post Healthy Lemon & Blood Orange Upside Down Cake appeared first on Heavenlynn Healthy.

A Spiced Holiday Buckwheat Cake by Bianca from Kirschbiene Kocht as my Christmas blog tipp.

It’s only two days until Christmas, and I wanted to end this year by giving back some love. That’s why I’ve not only got a delicious recipe for you today, but also a heavenly blog tipp. The other day I really needed a quick and delicious cake recipe for my best friend’s birthday. I did not feel like being creative that day so I remembered this chocolate buckwheat cake that I saw over at Bianca’s from the blog Kirschbiene Kocht. I only made a few modifications to the recipe and it turned out absolutely terrific. Not only does it taste incredibly Christmassy, it also makes your whole kitchen smell like it, too. 

Bianca was so kind to allow me to post her recipe as part of my Christmas blog tipp, and I am really excited to share her blog with you today. I do not read many German food blogs frequently, but Bianca’s blog is one of the few that I visit at least every week. Not only are her recipes absolutely delicious, they also always turn out just the way they are supposed to be, which is not always a given.

The cake itself is naturally gluten free and plant based and refined sugar free, yet it tastes like the most decadent and unhealthy cake ever. Except that it is not.

Those are definitely the best cakes. Don’t you think?

Another reason why I love Bianca’s blog is her writing. I love reading the words behind her recipes, because they are so kind, and funny, but also honest and sometimes deep. Bianca’s blog is one of the first German food blogs that I ever read and it feels like home to me. I hope that I can one day meet her in person, because we have so many similarities.

Now on to this cake. The spiced holiday buckwheat cake is a mix of protein-rich buckwheat flour, ground almonds and lots of warming holiday spices. It is naturally sweetened with banana and maple syrup and the highlight is the pear that makes it super moist. I don’t think that you will find anyone who doesn’t like this cake, so if you still feel like baking for Christmas, this is your recipe.

This will be my lost post before Christmas, and I just wanted to thank you all for your support, all of the kind comments, messages and social media posts. I feel very blessed to have such amazing readers, and I am looking forward to an exciting year 2017.

The original recipe is by Bianca from Kirschbiene Kocht, and I simply modified it slightly. Be sure to stop by Bianca’s blog if you speak German. If not, you can also enjoy her beautiful photos. 

Enjoy!

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

The post Spiced Holiday Buckwheat Cake appeared first on Heavenlynn Healthy.

I’ve had some exciting few weeks, which is why it has been a bit quiet on the recipe side, but today, I’d like to introduce you to a German specialty: plum cake with buckwheat & spelt dough. The original dough is obviously not made with buckwheat or spelt, but normal white flour, but white flour isn’t really nutritious, so whole-wheat it is. Germans eat their plum cake with a yeast dough – now, this might seem very strange to non-Germans, but trust me, it’s divine. The dough is similar to that of bread: flour, yeast, almond milk and a bit of coconut oil, and you simply top it with fruit, but you normally only see it with plums, or damsons, a special and very sweet kind of plum that we get over here. 

The real hero of this post, however, are my new plates and mugs from Broste Copenhagen*, one of my favorite interior and pottery brands. It’s funny, but you would think that I have a large cupboard of plates and bowls and could host a large number of people. However, I do have plenty of bowls and plates, but never more than two matching ones. So when Broste Copenhagen sent me this generous gift with their Nordic Sand collection, I did a long happy dance, because I am now finally able to host more than four people with matching plates and bowls. And look at how beautiful they are. I am madly, deeply in love with this brand. I already had a few of their items before, but I am now so proud of my collection – what a big step towards being a grown-up.

So now that we’ve briefly discussed my love for pretty tableware, let’s get back to this plum cake with buckwheat & spelt dough. Plum cake brings back so many childhood memories. For me it means family time in my grandmother’s garden. It means bees swirling around the cake, it means kids birthday parties, barefoot handstands and wheels on the grass. Those were the perfect summer days, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Now, unfortunately my grandmother is no longer with us, but I still feel the urge to make a plum cake every late summer according to her recipe.

Of course the traditional recipe has been tweaked to healthify it: instead of white flour I used a mix of buckwheat and spelt flour to give it more fiber and protein. The dough is also made of delicious coconut oil, almond milk, rice syrup (or raw honey) sparkling water to make it fluffy, as well as yeast. All recipes add up to a warming, but not overly sweet base, which, topped with sweet plums make for the perfect goodbye-summer and hello fall cake.

Now, to all my non-German friends, this plum cake with buckwheat & spelt dough is something to get used to, and they are not for everybody. I just wanted to tell you this straight up front, so you know not to expect a normal sweet cake dough. If you do decide to give it a try though, I promise that you will try something that you have never tried before.

Enjoy!

*A big Thank You goes out to Broste Copenhagen for equipping the Heavenlynn Healthy kitchen with a generous amount of their beautiful plates and bowls. Thank you, Sarah, for the wonderful gift!

DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE OR HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS, QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?

Feel free to leave a comment below, and don’t forget to tag your creations on social media using #heavenlynnhealthy.

I’d love for this blog to be a dialogue.

The post Plum Cake with Buckwheat & Spelt Dough appeared first on Heavenlynn Healthy.

Note: This recipe is adapted from the glorious cookbook Deliciously Ella: Awesome Ingredients, Incredible Food That You and Your Body Will Love. Copyright 2015 by Eleanor Woodward. Published by Yellow Kite.

This raw cheesecake is the best healthy cake you will ever try. I almost couldn’t believe how good it is. Even my family (aunt, uncle, cousins, cousin’s boyfriend) who had the honor of being my guinea pigs last weekend, was amazed by it’s taste. Of course everybody loved the base layer – medjool dates and nuts are just the perfect healthy cake base. The middle layer is an amazing composition of frozen bananas and cashew nuts and the top layer is a symphony of fresh and frozen berries, which makes this vegan cake the perfect cake for a warm summer day. It’s also more of a frozen treat since it needs to go into the freezer for a couple of hours before you can enjoy it. So if you’re a big fan of ice cream cake, then this recipe is for you.
Unlike most sugar and fat loaded cakes, this cake is filled with lots of goodness that your body will actually benefit from. Using nuts instead of butter is a great way to substitute saturated fats with healthy unsaturated fats. These monounsaturated fatty acids help lower cholesterol and increase overall cardiovascular health. Of all nuts, almonds contain the highest amounts of vitamin E, which is essential for beautiful nails, hair, and skin. Cashews are a great source of magnesium, which helps with building muscles in your body, and helps protect against high blood pressure.

This berry cheesecake is also only sweetened with natural sweeteners like dates, bananas and a little bit of maple syrup. It’s still high in sugar, but with every bite of this cake, you fuel your body with amazing vitamins and minerals that are found in these alternative sweeteners. The main source of goodness in this cake, however, are berries. Berries are basically antioxidant power houses. Strawberries, for example, regulate the blood sugar and decrease the risk of diabetes type 2. They also have a high amount of vitamin C, which strengthens the immune system and protects us from harmful radicals. Blueberries are literally “happy berries” as they enhance the mood, improve vision, and help fight various diseases as they contain the highest antioxidant amount of all berries. They truly deserve the title “super foods” since they improve overall health and well-being. With so much packed goodness, there is no reason not to try this healthy cake immediately.

Health benefits in this raw berry cheesecake:
– biotin (important for blood sugar balance and skin health, necessary to build healthy fats that keep the skin moist and soft)
– fiber (important for heart health, lowers cholesterol levels)
– magnesium (important for a healthy nerve system, muscle health, energy production)- manganese (for nerve health)
– mono-unsaturated fats (decreases risks for breast cancer, important for heart health)
– potassium (lowers cholesterol levels and blood pressure)
– protein (important for a healthy metabolism, immune
systems, production of enzymes)
– vitamin C (good for your immune system, tissue health)

Ingredients:
For the the base:
– 18 Medjool-Dates (350g)
– 1 cup (100g) almonds
– 1 cup (100g) pecans
– a pinch of salt

For the middle layer:
– 2 bananas
– 1 cup (100g) cashews
– 1 cup (100g) strawberries
– 1/3 cup (100g) maple syrup
– ¼ cup (50ml) fresh orange juice
– 1/2 tsp lemon zest

For the top layer:
– 1 banana
– 3 medjool dates
– 1 cup (100g) cashews
– 1 cup (150g) blueberries
– 1 cup (100g) strawberries
– ¼ cup (50ml) fresh orange juice

The night before you want to make this cake, you need to do some preparations. Peel and slice the bananas and freeze them in a ziplock over night. Wash the blueberries and freeze them as well. Pour the 2 cups (200g) cashews into a bowl and cover them with water completely and oak them overnight.
You can use frozen blueberries instead of fresh ones, however, they can change the cake’s consitency. If you use store-bought frozen blueberries, then you won’t need the orange juice in the top layer.

For the base:
Start by placing the nuts into a food processor and pulse a few times until they are nicely broken down. Pit the dates, and cut them into little pieces. If you habe a strong food processor, then you can mix the dates and nuts and blend them into a nice sticky dough. This sould only take a few seconds.
If your food processor isn’t strong enough, you can totally use your hands instead. Simply sqeeze the date pieces with your hands until the dates become nice and soft and you could potentially form little balls with it. Then gradually add the nuts and knead them into the date paste. Do this until you have evenly combined the two ingredients (nuts and dates).
Once you have a nice date-nut-dough, press it into the base of a cake tin and place it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes.

For the middle layer:
Drain the soaked cashews, and place half of it into the food processor. Add all other ingredients and blend until smooth. Take the cake tin out of the freezer and pour the cashew mix on top of the base layer. Place the tin back into the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

For the top layer:
Place the rest of the cashews into the food processor and add all remaining ingredients. Be sure to pit the three dates, and cut them into small pieces before adding them to the machine. Take the cake tin out of the freezer once again, and pour the berry layer on top of the middle layer. Put the cake tin back into the freezer for at least 4 hours before serving.

Before you can serve this cake, you’ll need to take it out of the freezer and allow it to warm up for 15 minutes. Otherwise you won’t be able to cut it and your guests will probably get a brain freeze.

Enjoy!

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