Healthy Baking: Cake Mix Subsitutions

Scott's birthday was yesterday and while baking his birthday cake I made a mental note to share a quick tip with you all about baking with boxed cake, brownie, cupcakes or cookie mixes.

When deciding what kind of cake to make sometimes you can get a bit overwhelmed with choosing from thousands of recipes online and go for the good 'ol boxed mix.  Scott's favorite is German Chocolate with some kind of caramel frosting, so I picked up the ingredients for what would be close enough.

German Chocolate Cake + Coconut Pecan Icing:

1 box German Chocolate cake mix
1 can of Coconut Pecan icing
1 1/4 cups of water
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp egg whites liquid (9 tbsp total)

*HEALTH TIP: Look at the lower fat recipe at the bottom, there's usually tips right there on the box!

Instead of using vegetable oil and 3 large eggs, substitute 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce and 3 egg whites (equals 9 tbsp total):

Keep that math equation in your back pocket and you'll be set feeling less guilty on your funfetti cupcakes and double chocolate brownie box mixes.

Even with the substitutes, this cake tasted SOOOOO sinful!

more healthy substitutions:

*all pulled from Taste of Home.

• For every 1/2 cup of oil replaced with applesauce, you will save 900 calories and 110 grams of fat.
• Replace 1 cup of cream with fat-free evaporated milk…and you’ll save 600 calories and 84 grams fat.
• Use reduced-fat cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese…and you'll bank 310 calories and 37 grams fat.  Switch from regular to fat-free cream cheese and save even more—560 calories and 80 grams fat!
•  Use 1 cup of reduced-fat sour cream in place of regular sour cream and save 160 calories and 20 grams of fat. If you use fat-free sour cream instead, you'll save 250 calories and 37 fat grams.

Simple tricks like that make desserts okay to indulge in, even for those with strict diets.  Reducing this and buying low-fat that all adds up...without taking the chocolaty or sugary taste you crave away.

Wouldn't you want a piece of me?

Questions:

• Have you ever used the un-sweetened applesauce substitution before?
• What are some of your go-to healthier choices for cooking/baking?