Healthy Red Velvet Wholewheat Pancakes

The weekend is the perfect excuse to have pancakes for breakfast. They are a little celebratory and essy to make, so what's not to like? 
I wanted to add a little twist to this weekend's pancakes, so I thought of adding some red food colouring for a sexy effect. Heck, it did work!
This recipe is a staple in my house, and I like to play around with it every now and then. You can get really creative with its add-ons and decorations.

As usual, excuse the crappy photo.
I sprinkled some strawberry chocolate chips on top, just for the sake of the pic, and Lily ate them as soon as the flash went off!


This recipe yields 4 - 5 small pancakes. You can, of course, double the ingredients to get double the number of pancakes.

Here's what you'll need:

- 1 cup wholewheat flour

- 2 tsp sweetener/honey

- 1/2 tsp baking powder

- 1/4 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 tsp cinnamon  (or more)

- 1 egg

- 1 cup milk

- 1 tbs apple cider vinegar

- 2 tbs oil (coconut is lovely here)

- 1/4 red food colouring (or until you get a vibrant red-coloured batter)

- Optional: Raisins/fruit pieces/nuts

Procedures:

1-In a small bowl, combine milk and vinegar, set aside until milk curdles.

2- In another bowl, combine flour, sweetener, baking powder and soda and cinnamon.

3- In a small bowl, whisk the egg, vanilla, oil and curdled milk until well-incorporated.

4- Gradually pour the liquid mix onto the dry mix while whisking slowly.

5- Add your food colouring in small amounts and whisk after every addition until you reach that red velvet colour. Don't over-mix or the pancakes would be tough. The batter should be a little lumpy and bubbly.

6- You can now add whatever you'd like, i.e. raisins/fruit/nuts/dark chocolate chips

7- Lightly brush a nonstick pan/griddle with coconut oil. Heat it over medium heat.

8- Ladle the batter and pour into the pan. I like to keep my pancakes small and even by using a 1/3 measuring cup as a ladle. 

9- They are ready to be flipped oncy tiny bubbles form on the surface.

10- Makes about 4-5 pancakes.

Cheat Dessert: Zebra Cake

Hello lovelies,

Well, it's been a while since I last posted something on the blog. I've been bad! Work and housework combined are not really my cuppa tea. Anyway, I chose something fun, though not very "fit", as a comeback; Zebra Cake. There's nothing special about it except that it has a zebra pattern all through, which makes it pretty self-decorated. It's very impressive and looks like a ton of work. It is kind of a hassle, but very basic and needs absolutely zero skills. I assure you it would be a lovely crowd-pleaser and you'll be asked to do it on birthdays.
I first saw Lorraine Pascale do it, and was blown away. It took me a long time to pluck up the courage and do it, but it was definitely worth it. If you're on a healthy lifestyle like me, it would be a nice monthly or fortnightly treat , if you've got a lot of people around to finish it for you. I repeat, do NOT have your cake and eat it too, by yourself!


I used sugar substitute instead of sugar, but you can definitely use regular sugar. I use IsoSweet, which is an Egyptian fructose aspartame-free sugar substitute. It has two kinds; one for drinks and cold desserts, and another for baking. I used the baking kind here. You can definitely use any equivalent of choice, just make sure it's aspartame-free.
I also used unsweetened cocoa in the recipe, but you're free to use the sweetened kind if you wish, or just increase some sugar.

You'll need:

-2 cups sifted flour
-3 heaping tbs cocoa powder (I used raw unsweetened cocoa)
-1 cup sugar substitute/sugar
-4 eggs
-1/2 cup oil (I used heated coconut oil)
-1/2 cup milk (skimmed)
-1 vanilla sachet (1 tsp vanilla extract)
-1 baking powder sachet (15-16 g)
-1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Using an electric mixer or food processor, beat the eggs with the sugar until sugar is almost dissolved completely.
-Add oil, and continue beating.
- Add milk and salt and continue beating until frothy and pale yellow.
- Take 3 tbs off the four and set aside. Now your 2 cups flour are minus 3 tablespoons.
- Start adding the flour gradually and mixing till all is incorporated in the batter with no visible white streaks.
- Add the baking powder last and mix in using a wooden spoon or a spatula, not the mixer/food processor.
- Now divide the batter into 2 equal parts in two separate bowls. On one half, add the 3 tablespoons of cocoa and mix in with a spatula till well-incorporated in batter.
- On the "white" half, add in the 3 tbs of flour that you set aside. Mix in with a spatula.
- Your cake batters are ready.
- Prepare a 20-cm baking pan by lightly brushing with coconut oil/cooking spray/margarine then lightly sprinkling flour to coat it all, and finally getting rid of excess flour.
- In the center of the pan, carefully add 2 spoonfuls of white batter, then in the center of the white spoonfuls, add 2 spoonfuls of brown batter.
- Keep alternating between the white and the brown batters, 2 spoonfuls of each a time in the center of its previous "blob" till the batter is all done.
- Bake for 20 - 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Leave to cool completely before cutting.

My camera was dead, so I only took this terrible pic with my phone. Sorry! I promise it looked much better than this.