Cakes made with natural sugars and unprocessed grains are indulgent and nutritious and good for well-being. Whole grains are better than refined or processed grains because they contain endosperm, germ, and bran, but refined grains only retain the endosperm.
A good cake is the star of the show at nearly every birthday party or wedding, but it’s certainly not topping any lists of healthy foods. It’s no secret that the ingredients used in most pastries, cookies and cakes pack quite a punch in the calorie department. A slice of the one twelfth of a 9-inch diameter cake packs a whopping 352 calories.
The American Heart Association recommends keeping added sugar to no more than 100 calories a day for women and 150 calories a day for men. A slice of white cake has a little over 26 grams of sugar per serving. A single slice of it without frosting puts women over their recommended daily limit of sugar.
A select band of bakers and chefs are offering an alternative, “healthy” way of baking. According to Melissa Sharp, owner of Oxford’s Modern Baker café-bakery and healthy baking brand, and the Irish-born chef and food writer Jordan Bourke: nourishing breads, wholesome cakes, ancient grains and bubbling ferments (Orion), assert that, provided they are eaten in moderation as part of a balanced diet, you can have your (healthy) cake and eat it.
Better Bread
The “Healthy Bakers” these days, like Bakeway, instead of black-listing certain ingredients and counting calories, are cooking breads, cakes and biscuits from scratch using natural fats and ancient wholegrains. The breads are made from four simple ingredients – Flour, water, yeast and salt.
To make their products a source of well-being instead of ill-health, they are also returning to skills such as fermentation. Fermented foods are rich in live bacteria that replenish the microbiome, helping it maintain the right proportion of bacteria for optimal health and weight loss.
Baking It Slowly
With the growing number of people with gluten intolerance, scientists now believe that it’s this speed in the baking industry that is accounting for the problem. Commercial baking is all about fast baking, saving time and money on the cost of overall wellbeing. The dough should go through a process of fermentation for 48 hours, creating easy to digest breads which have much lower glycaemic index and contain microbiome, a gut friendly bacteria.
The microbiome in our gut governs many of our body’s key functions and is crucial to our overall health. A balanced microbiome regulates the immune system, metabolism, sustains the gastrointestinal tract, supports mood and brain function, produces crucial vitamins and nutrients, and helps us maintain a healthy weight
The Benefits of Gluten and Carbs
For both breads and cakes, healthy bakers use wholegrain wheat flour. The majority of the nutrition of the grain is in the kernel’s husk so “wholegrain” flour is an important factor to account for. Gluten is a form of protein present in wheat, barley, rye and other grains. It is what makes dough rise and stay elastic. Gluten and carbs, if treated correctly, can be beneficial and healthy for the body.
Having healthy places to indulge and savour food is the prerequisite in adopting a scrumptious yet nourishing lifestyle. One such bakery in India which adheres to the health standards is Bakeway. Its baking prowess is the healthiest innovation in pastries and cakes, adding taste and value to every bite.
