Special Cakes
We admit it. We have a sweet tooth! Cake, pie, ice cream, candy, cookies, you name it, we love it! The taste of a sweet treat offers a moment of pure bliss. We like when our taste buds send signals to our brains of complete satisfaction. What we do not like are the consequences! You know the saying, a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips?! The perfect response to this is another saying: Everything in moderation! In life, balance is so important; a balanced schedule, balanced checkbook, balanced diet. When it comes to sweets, all of our knowledge about moderation flies right out the window. It tastes good. I want more! Studies have shown that high amounts of processed sugar and saturated fats are not good for you at all and as much as they might make you feel good in the moment they are in your mouth, they make you feel less than your best in the long run.
Good news! Amazingly, food is not the enemy! Healthy foods are designed by nature to nourish you from the inside out. Choosing healthy ingredients not only taste just as good, if not better than the sweet treats we are used to, but they also have amazing health benefits to make you feel better after eating them. Let us explain our journey toward this discovery.
We were raised in a traditional home, enjoying three square meals with all the food groups. Emphasis was always placed on health and eating fruits and vegetables, so our foundation of healthy eating was solid. We definitely snuck in those sweets too. What kid doesn't love the vending machine, candy store, ice cream shop, and glowing bakery counter? We baked a lot too; all sorts of delicacies.
Much later on, we stumbled upon a mail order detox meal delivery program called Nona Lim. Frazzled with work, meal planning and preparation, we decided to try this convenient meal delivery for two weeks. The meals were unconventional, offering things we rarely ate; chicken soup for breakfast, nut milks, fresh fish dinners with pesto, bone broths, and unique veggies like bok choy and jicama. One breakfast item we found through Nona Lim, and still shop for today, was Purely Elizabeth granola, which is gluten free, vegan, and free of refined sugars. There was no trace of refined sugar, dairy, or bakery items to be found! To our surprise, the food was incredibly delicious and we started to feel incredible too! We felt lighter, less sluggish, and had more clarity. Our subscription ended and all of a sudden, it was Thanksgiving! We ate the traditional meal with all the fixings and were stuffed! Our light feelings were now overcome by a food coma. How did we revert back so fast? We felt the need to begin healthier eating to attempt to regain the feeling we had on the detox meal plan again. It was not easy. I don't know how long we circled the grocery store searching for jicama and lentils (still haven't spotted the jicama). Purely Elizabeth granola wasn't on grocery shelves yet, as it is now.
We visited our practitioner, a gorgeous gal from the area we knew from high school. She emphasized the importance of eating to live, not living to eat and how foods can assist in preventing illness and healing the body. She recommended a book by Dr. Fuhrman, Eat to Live, advocating a micronutrient-rich diet. We went to Crandall Library and checked it out immediately (It's good to keep your library card up to date). We hand wrote every recipe in a notebook before returning it (I forget why we didn't photocopy it or just buy it, but I digress!). Dr. Fuhrman explains that you should eat foods with high nutritional value. If nutrients were the top of the equation, and the bottom were 1, foods close to a 1:1 ratio are best. Fudge brownies = 0. Glazed doughnuts = 0. Carrots = 1. See where he is going with this? We made his recipes, grocery shopped, and repeated. It is a lot of work to be healthy! It's like a whole other job!
When we heard of Purple Carrot gluten free, vegan, plant-based meal kits, particularly the TB12 plan (Tom Brady... yeah, that Tom Brady- Eat like a GOAT), we were in! This reduced meal planning, grocery shopping, and provided clean, nutrient rich meals.
There were times we didn't have time to even cook the meals sent by Purple Carrot and wanted the prepared meal delivery like Nona Lim, again. Nona Lim no longer provided prepared meals, so we googled. We found Sakara, a completely plant-based diet. Sakara's philosophy is to eat clean, play dirty. How much do you love that? Sakara introduced ingredients and explained why they are so amazing for your body. Foods can actually heal you from the inside out. It is not about the products you put on the surface of your skin, it is what you choose to put inside your body! The earth has provided us with a natural fountain of youth! We just need to have the knowledge of which natural foods to put in our bodies to attain optimal health and glow! With this knowledge, we can turn to food, not just for momentary comfort, but for beauty, health, mental clarity, energy, youthfulness, focus and calm. Superfoods like raw coconut, cacao, chia seeds, raw honey, and berries, offer health benefits with exceptional nutrient density. We have enjoyed cooking and baking with superfoods and love how we feel when we eat an amazing plant-based diet!
Luckily, eating plant-based foods doesn't mean depriving ourselves of our all time favorites - sweets! Sweets take a new form with only plant-based ingredients, natural sweeteners, no refined sugar and only good fats. Sweets, redefined, have become not only a great treat, but also healthy! Welcome, the birth of Special Cakes; cupcakes using plant-based ingredients with the goal of enhancing your health and well-being while you indulge! Organic, gluten free, dairy free, and plant-based, Special Cakes bakes cupcakes using superfoods rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals to boost beauty, energy, and immunity. This is not a diet fad. This is understanding nature's bounty and utilizing the gift of nutrient packed ingredients produced by the earth for our well-being. We are in love with our product and hope you will be too!
