Testimony of the Day
“Hi Maria! I just wanted to show you a quick update after being on your diet for 5 days!! I’ve attached a before and after picture. My itchy, rashy legs have always looked their worse when i’m in a bath or shower; they are always there, but something about the hot water would make them very red and more noticeable than they already were. The “before” picture is how my legs would look while bathing for the last 3 or so years. I was so happy to take a bath tonight and realize they are almost all gone! I just wanted to thank you again for saving my skin!” Malorie
To get started on your path to health and healing, click HERE.
FOOD DYE FACTS
There’s good reason to cut the artificial food coloring. They’re in almost all processed foods and even some fresh whole foods; fruit growers are now allowed to dip oranges in a carcinogenic red food dye to make them more appealing. We have a natural instinct linking color to freshness, and to entice kids to eat junk. It’s not just the hot pink cherries in the Captain Crunch that have these detrimental dyes; cheese, vegetable juice, and yogurt contain food coloring. Did you know cheese should be white?
Synthetic dyes cause hyperactivity because it is an excitotoxin, where it over stimulates our dopamine production, but then we don’t produce enough; which causes a deficiency. ADD is a symptom of a dopamine deficiency.
Becoming quickly bored with the routine and having a hard time focusing are classic symptoms. People with dopamine deficiencies tend to start a lot of things yet don’t finish them. They work on a lot of different things at once. In an ADHD child, low levels of dopamine don’t allow the child to focus or attend to anything in the environment, looking very physically hyperactive due to their lack of focus.
Click HERE to find natural dye! |
As dopamine levels in the brain begin to rise, we become excited and energized. If it gets too high, which usually happens with stimulations like MSG, food dyes and drugs, then the body becomes hyper stimulated by our environment, becoming guarded and suspicious. With low levels of dopamine, we can’t focus while with high levels of dopamine our focus becomes intense to the point of focusing on everything as though it were directly related to our situation. Steering clear of these exitotoxins are your best defense for your family!
Kraft, Coca-Cola and other manufacturers already removed artificial dyes from the products they distribute in other countries, but not in America. Nutri-Grain bars in American include Red 40, Yellow 6 and Blue 1, but in Europe, they use beetroot red, annato and paprika for color.
To learn more on specific foods and how it effects our mood and our children, I have a very shocking class called Food Mood Energy and Weight Loss for only $25 and I also have a Healthy Kids Class. Click HERE to sign up for the video and slides.
“HEALTHIFIED” RED VELVET CAKE:
1/2 cup coconut oil or butter, softened
9 eggs
1 cup Swerve (or erythritol)
1 tsp stevia glycerite (omit if using Swerve)
1/2 tsp strawberry extract (or other)
1/2 cup unsweetened almond or coconut milk
1 TBS natural red food coloring
2 1/2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder (skip for better red color)
1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
3/4 cup coconut flour
3/4 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
Cream Cheese Frosting
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese or 16 oz coconut cream
1/2 cup confectioner’s Swerve (or erythritol, powdered)
1/2 tsp stevia glycerite (omit if using Swerve)
1/4 cup butter or coconut oil
Frosting: Make sure your cream cheese or coconut cream is at room temperature. In a medium sized bowl, mix until smooth then add in sweetener. Beat in butter or coconut oil until smooth. Set aside.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch cake pan (or three 6 inch pans if you want three layers like I did in the photo) with coconut oil spray and dust with a thin layer of cocoa powder. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sweeteners together until fluffy. Add in the the eggs, almond milk, food coloring and vanilla. In another bowl, combine the coconut flour, cocoa powder baking powder and salt. Then mix the dry and wet ingredients alternately until everything is a smooth batter. Place the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until batter is set.
Invert pan and let cake cool completely. Slice cake into two layers (unless using three 6 inch pans, then just cut tops off to make them square and stack). Transfer bottom cake layer to a serving dish. Frost the bottom layer of the cake (do this again with second layer for 6 inch pans). Add the top layer to cake and cover with frosting. Makes 12 servings. Option: Make into cake balls and dip into “Healthified” Magic Shell.
NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON (per serving)
Traditional Red Velvet = 359 calories, 16g fat, 6g protein, 49.5g carbs, 1.6g fiber
“Healthified” Cake = 214 calories, 18.5g fat, 6g protein, 5g carbs, 2.9g fiber
To find TONS of great Kids ideas like this, check out my book: The Art of Eating Healthy: KIDS. We need to start our kids off on the right foot so they don’t end up with issues that keep them from being the amazing little people they can be!!!
Another Great Testimony!
My adult acne started to clear (finally! adult acne is the WORST). Not only did my skin clear, but I feel like it has more…glow…to give the technical term. 😉 Then I noticed that my hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating of the hands/feet/underarms), which I’d lived with in shame since I was a child, lessened and became almost non-existent. I started sleeping soundly. I had steady energy (instead of swings) and less constant hunger. I threw my asthma inhaler out and won’t be renewing it.
I’m still working on the hormones and the insulin resistance … but I realize these things take time. So much progress already! I am, and always will be, a foodie at heart! Which is why I love everything that you do! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Hi Maria! Thanks again for another great post.
I never had Red Velvet Cake and it never appealed to me, the thought of so much food coloring… even typing the words “red food coloring” I shiver!!! Seriously! I like your version ♥ Have a great day!!!
Forgive the way late reply but I think red velvet cake (at least proper stuff) is red because something reacts to the buttermilk. Either way though Maria’s is best!
I prefer using beets for the food coloring in Red Velvet Cake and Red Velvet Ice Cream. You can also use that in part for the sweetener. I don’t use any other food dyes, whether they are natural or not they are processed.
May be a silly question, but when you measure the coconut oil, do you liquify it first or measure it in the more solid form?
I scoop it out of the jar when it is solid. 🙂
How did you make the chocolate shell for your cake pops? Thank you!
It is the chocolate sauce recipe from my sweets cookbook. 🙂 http://astore.amazon.com/marisnutran05-20/detail/1466456760
is there a button to print this recipe?
You can just use your browsers pint. 🙂
Hi Maria,
I just found out I am expecting and I have only been on this low carb, no sugar or wheat, and perservative/bad ingredient diet for 2-3 months. I am wondering if this diet is safe during pregnancy? Also, is Stevia safe as well? I have heard that Stevia can contribute to miscarriage, but I don’t know how reliable it is.
Thanks Maria
I think this diet is safe for everyone. I have actually helped several clients get pregnant when they couldn’t using this diet. 🙂
Made this frosting recipe today for my baby’s first birthday cake 🙂 I made the cake from another low carb recipe, but the frosting made the cake awesome! I loved it and the baby loved it! Most of it made it’s way onto the floor, but he did eat some of it right up. Even my father (who asked me if this was a crazy, frou-frou cake and is very negative towards alternative sweeteners) loved it and ate two pieces. Thanks so much for everything you do! I’m so happy that my angel’s first birthday cake was something that was soooo good for him and these decisions are what sets him up for a long and healthy life!
Thank you! Happy birthday to your baby! 🙂
I just want to encourage the woman who wrote to you. Like her I have PCOS. I have never been overweight or had acne issues due to my PCOS, but I couldn’t cycle on my own and wasn’t ovulating. I went through infertility treatments to have my oldest child. With eating LC, and with the help of metformin, I went on to conceive my next two children without any fertility treatments. I now cycle and ovulate on my own. It really does work!! Best wishes to you.
I skipped the coloring {didn’t have it on hand}. So lovely to find a cake with cream cheese frosting that I can eat. Pregnant and craving frosting of all things! Normal me hates frosted cakes.
Funny! Thank you. 🙂
This is a thing of beauty, Maria. My husbands favorite cake, so I’ll be trying it out for his birthday in a couple weeks.
Best wishes for success with the latest cookbook!
Thank You!
This looks really good, yet I can’t get behind calling it Red Velvet Cake when it’s not chocolate. Yet seeing I’m not a big fan of chocolate that’s ok. I can’t wait to try it.
Do you have an idea for a frosting more like butter cream — I am not a fan of cream cheese. Yes, I know it is traditional with red velvet, but I don’t care for it. Cake looks great!
Sorry, I don’t. I am a cream cheese frosting girl! I would just take a recipe like this one and replace milk with almond milk and powdered sugar with confectioners swerve. 🙂 http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Vanilla-Butter-Cream-Frosting-232945
I just made this and have it in the oven baking (hoping it’s going to be moist??? – please let it be moist….) But, have a question. After blending dry into wet – I noticed little white chunks in the batter. And, my batter was thick, was that right? Back to the white chunks. Could that be the coconut oil going back to a solid form? I used both Tropical Traditions organic coconut oil and coconut flour. I even pressed my dry ingredients thru my sieve to make sure there were so hard chunks before blending into the wet ingredients.
Hmm, you might have to worm it a little more before adding to the batter. How did it turn out? 🙂
first, I should make it known that I’ve been the families official Red Velvet cake baker since the 70’s. My first taste of Red Velvet cake was love at first bite! lol So, I had to make it for every holiday, every birthday, every occasion that called for a cake! I had probably set my hopes a little too high when I made this. For me, it’s close, but, not quite there. I will try this again but play with the recipe. As for the white pieces, it had to be the coconut oil solidfying from the other cooler wet ingredients. All gone after baking. The cake was very dry though and I used 8″ cake pans, baked at temp/time shown. I know coconut cakes can be dry, but, they can also become more dense/moist within a couple days too – so, I made the cream cheese icing – finished up making it 4 layers – put it in my tin cake pan and stuck in the refrigerator for a couple days. I should note that the icing is PERFECT! It doesn’t taste like cream cheese, which is good (for me). I thought it tasted very similar to the original cooked icing recipe that goes with Red Velvet cake. Have you played with this any more since posting the original recipe??? I think it needs more cocoa and needs to be a little sweeter, definitely more moist. Maybe the buttermilk or the vinegar/baking soda DO make a difference? I’m going to try the original recipe from my cookbook, but use your measurments with the coconut flour and eggs – see if I can get this a little closer to my old cake. I’m just so glad that you’ve given me hope of making my favorite cake again!
Thank you! Nope, haven’t made this in a while. Let me know if your tweaks workout! 🙂
I think you might be onto something with the buttermilk/sour idea, if you check out Lorne at Healthy indulgences red velvet cake she adds yogurt…and I recall trying her recipe with success.(very similar to maria’s, and gluten free also)
also the butter would be less dry than the coconut oil (i have found that to be the case in some recipes). I generally make my buttermilk from whole goats milk by adding lime juice(lemon gives my DH issues with digestion!)
Maria – I’m so excited, just had to share with you!! I did the red velvet mini-cupcakes and doughnuts recipe that called for greek yogurt. And, only baked at 325, maybe that helps too? WOW, what a difference. Haven’t tried it again for your cake recipe, but, I think this will do the trick….let me know if you try revamping it with the yogurt.
Thanks Belenda! Glad they worked out! 🙂
Hi Maria,
I made this cake for my sister (who is not low carb but lovers cake). It was a hit! I didn’t have natural food coloring so I went without it and it was still delish. I’ve since bought some beet crystals and will be making a huge one (doubling the recipe) for my husband’s b-day! Thanks for another superb recipe.
(also made your yummy “brownie de France” from the cookbook tonight!)
–nat
Thanks Nat! Glad it was a hit! 🙂
What are beet crystals? And Maria, I’ve been drinking half a cup of beet root juice daily and was wondering your thoughts? My insides are red and I’m nice and regular lol I read athletes use it for energy. I’m not sure if it’s the combination but aloe, psyllium before meals with an enzyme and flax and very with every small meal I’m feeling great and digestion is better!
The beet juice I saw had 25g of sugar per cup. That is too much for me. Beet crystals are almost pure beet sugar. Not a good option for me. 🙂
Congrats on improving the digestion! You took some good options for healing your gut. 🙂
I had a question about Swerve. Not sure if you’ll know the answer. I’m on the hcg diet and looking to make this in P3. Do you know if the Swerve is ok to use? I noticed it had some kind of fructose in it…..
Hi, Swerve should be fine for any stage of hcg. It has 0 net carbs and no impact on insulin levels. It has Erythritol and Oligosaccharides, neither of which is a fructose and both from natural non-GMO plant sources. 🙂
Yea! Thank you! I’m so excited to try your recipes in phase 3. I’ve never really liked Red Velvet Cake because the flavor didn’t jive with the color. This makes much more sense to me! I can’t wait to try it with a raspberry flavor. 🙂
Hi! Have you tried this recipe with Splenda? I’m thinking of trying the recipe, but all I have on hand is Splenda. Is there something, chemically, about the recipe that requires using the erythritol and stevia or is that just for the sake of making it all natural??
Wow! I just tasted this cake. I made it according to directions with the exception of red food coloring. I didn’t have any on hand. I used xylitol instead of erythritol for granular sugar and I did use confectioners swerve in the frosting. I have only tasted red velvet cake one other time so I don’t have an acquired taste to compare, but as far an amazing sugar free, grain free frosted cake goes this is simply delicious. I am so pleased with results, and my kids love it. I have always loved cream cheese frosting and this was perfect! Which cookbook is it in?
Thank you! This recipe is in my Kids cookbook. Thanks!
http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Healthy-Eating-Kids/dp/0988512432/ref=sr_1_4?m=A51JBC26TWGDE&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1360833633&sr=1-4
That is a wonderful story. So happy she found the right way to turn her health around.
Thanks Jennifer! 🙂
Maria, I’m a new fan of yours – for the past 2 weeks all my family has heard is “Maria says…” and “According to Maria..”!
My 9-year old daughter helped me make your perfect pancakes this morning and they were delicious. We’ve also made your amazing bread and chocolate zucchini muffins with frosting – yum! I’m about to try making this cake for my girl’s 10th birthday party (she requested it!) and I have everything but the strawberry extract…would the cake still be yummy if I used vanilla? Thank you!
Awe, thank you! I think it would still taste great. 🙂
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but how does 3/4 cup of flour make this big 3 layer cake? How tall this is using small 6″ cake pans?
With Coconut flour you use about 1/4 the amount of flour and over twice the liquid. 🙂
If I want to make these into cupcakes instead of cake how long do I bake it for and what temp?
You can probably keep the temp the same and cook for maybe 20-30 minutes and test with a toothpick. 🙂
perfect! I think I will make these for Valentine’s Day. Last year I made your cookies and cream cupcakes and they were amazing!
I used the natural food coloring but after adding cocoa powder it turned brown? Doesn’t look like the color in your picture. Should I have added more coloring?
To get that color you would have to skip the cocoa powder. Sorry, I updated it above.
THANK YOU SOOooooo Much!
Hi Maria! You are truly wonderful for helping so many of us with making food our friend….thank you so much for this! -I am excited by your cake recipes, because my son is graduating from high school and is really doing incredibly in following a low carb diet. May I ask, can your cakes with cream cheese frosting, such as the red velvet cake or the ‘spider’ cake be frozen & still taste fantastic when defrosted so I can prepare in advance? TY from Nova Scotia, Canada
Thank you!
No. Cream cheese frosting tends to get mealy if frozen.
In one of the comments above, Megan states the she made your cookies & cream cupcakes. That sounds delish! Where can I find the recipe?
I’d love to include this recipe in a round up post on Sugar Free Treats I’m doing for Valentine’s Day.
Please email me and let me know. Thank you for your time,
Have a wonderful day!