My New Challenge

Pin It I've decided to challenge myself with creating a unique birthday "cake" for each of my roommates.  I wanted to do something different, so I decided to incorporate my roommate's favorite food into their "cake" somehow.  And when I say "cake" I mean cake, pie, bar, or whatever happens to spark my creativity at the time.  My first challenge happened to be my roommate who is head-over-heels in love with popcorn, so I decided that I had to make her something with popcorn for her birthday.  As I was brainstorming, I thought about the popcorn truffles I had made awhile back and the yummy popcorn balls my grandma makes, but I hate repeating recipes...  It was then that I got the idea of a Popcorn Cake!  Perfect for her!  Although not completely healthy, it definitely had its perks being full of fibrous popcorn.  All I did was layer popcorn (mixed with melted marshmallows), chocolate,  peanut butter, and then another popcorn layer.  I also decorated it with mini Reese peanut butter cups and it turned out so cute.  The only downfall was that it was a little hard to eat...but delicious none the less.

My next challenge was something with sweet potato in it.  One roommate was kind of hesitant at first saying, "Your not putting sweet potato in her cake are you...That's disgusting!"  I told her not to worry and that if sweet potatoes were the birthday girl's favorite food I was ready to step up to the challenge.  After looking through Foodgawker.com a little bit for some inspiration, I was ready to take on the challenge.  The results: Delicious (and even nutritious this time)!  Everyone (minus one who hates pumpkin pie) love it and the four of us devoured just about the whole pie in one sitting.  YUM.

SWEET POTATO PIE

Not my best decorating job I know...it makes up for it in its taste I promise. :)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (3 small) Sweet potatoes

2 tbsp Coconut oil (again just trying to use it up...not the healthiest oil)

2 tbsp Lemon juice

1 tsp Pumpkin pie spice

Dash of salt

Few drops of butter extract (optional)

3 medium Eggs, separated (large eggs would probably work too...I just had medium on hand)

1/4 cup Brown sugar

6 packets Stevia

2 tbsp Unbleached all purpose flour (make sure you buy the healthier version of white flour by buying unbleached)

3/4 cup Buttermilk (3/4 cup skim milk with splash of lemon juice)

Whipped topping of choice (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F.

2. Poke a few holes in each potato with a fork and microwave until soft and tender (I can't give a specific time due to microwave variations, but start with four minutes and then flip the potatoes and adjust the time from there).

3. Scoop cooked potatoes into a food processor and puree.

4.  Add the coconut oil, lemon juice, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and butter extract to the food processor and blend until smooth again.  Make sure to stir down the sides a few times.

5. Separate the eggs and set the whites aside.  Add the yolks, brown sugar, and stevia to the potatoes and blend.

6. Add flour and blend just until combined.

7. Transfer potatoes to a mixing bowl and stir in the buttermilk until combined.

8. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form.

9. Gently fold the egg whites into the potato mixture and then pour into a greased 9x9 baking dish.

10.  Bake for about 35 minutes until center of pie is set.

11.  Let cool completely before serving with your favorite whipped topping (health of course!).

12.  Enjoy!

Makes 16 servings.

Nutrition Facts:

Calories: 58

Total Fat: 2.5 g

     Sat. Fat: 1.8 g

Cholesterol: 30.2 mg

Sodium: 35.3 mg

Potassium:  77.4 mg

Total Carbs: 7.4 g

     Dietary Fiber: 0.4 g

     Sugars: 4.5 g

Protein: 1.8 g

Vitamin A: 36.6%

Vitamin C: 1.3%

Calcium: 2.6%

Iron: 1.9%

Oh and I can't forget to share this funny moment with you:

As soon as my roommate set her piece of pie on her plate she dumped it right onto her pants!  Whoops!  Then of course later as we headed out on a late night Target adventure she looked like she wet her pants...awkward....haha.  Good times, good times.  P.S. This was the same roommate who turned her nose up to the idea of a sweet potato cake and then ended up loving it. :)