This past week my husband and I celebrated our birthdays. Yes, our birthdays. Our birthdays are only one day apart. We’ve been very busy working on our house and purchasing new things, so we had discussed not doing anything big for birthdays this year. I decided to bake him his favorite dessert for one of his little presents that I once made three birthdays ago, a copy of the Cheesecake Factory’s Red Velvet Cheesecake. This dessert is devilishly amazing and rich! No healthy substitutions were used for his cake, but I’ve listed some options below that may help lower the calories and unhealthy fat in your next dessert! Keep in mind that choosing to substitute can change the appearance, texture, or baking requirements.

Healthier Baking Substitutions: 

• Use non-hydrogenated oils or trans-fat free margarine instead of butter (Read this post for more info on trans-fats)
• Replace equal amounts of cream cheese or sour cream greek yogurt
• Try replace half of the sugar with sucralose (AKA Splenda)
• Swap half of the oil for equal amounts of applesauce to get more fruit in!
• You can substitute equal amounts of applesauce  for sugar and reduce liquid by 1/4 cup in some recipes too
• Use 2 egg whites instead of 1 whole egg
• Incorporate more fruit by swapping equal amounts of oil/butter with mashed bananas
• Substitute equal amounts of pureed black beans for flour in brownie recipes
• Bake with whole wheat flour instead of enriched white flour

Which substitution are you considering trying in your next baking adventure?

Here are some pictures of the birthday cake I made!