Less Sugar Blueberry Avocado Pound Cake

There are not a lot of desserts where when you take fat and sweetness from it that it still tastes good. While I didn't go too extreme with this recipe (had tried that with an earlier one - fail) - substituting a stick of butter for an avocado and reducing the sugar by a little over a third, it still came out delicious and moist with that rich, buttery, pound cake flavor.

I think the secret with "healthier" desserts is not to over-do it on the health factor. I mean, there are a lot of good recipes using healthy ingredients and cutting out all sugar, but in my experience, they are hard to come by. In this particular recipe, avocados are a perfect substitute for butter because it is still rich, but doesn't impart a lot of flavor.

In terms of sugar, I find that in a lot of Western dessert recipes, you can easily take out about a third of the sugar and get away with it. The recipe is still sweet and if anything, you can taste the other ingredients (butter, vanilla, blueberries) better because it's not covered in all that sweetness.

Tips for the recipe:

• Make sure to use ripe avocados. It's creamier and easier to mash up that way.
• Use room-temperature butter. It will mix more homogenously with the avocados.
• Don't grease the sides of the pan. Just like angel food cake, you want the cake to have something to grab onto so it won't collapse. Since this cake has a fair amount of leavening, but is on the heavier side, it will have a tendency to do that.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Start by mixing the avocados with mixer on medium speed until smooth. Then add softened butter and mix on medium-high till fluffy and smooth.

2.Add in sugar and mix till combined.

3. On low speed, mix in eggs and yolk one at a time till combined. Then add in the vanilla and almond extract.

4.Combine your flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder in a bowl. Divide your flour mixture into two and alternate adding the flour mixture and milk into your avocado mixture, starting and ending with the flour.

5. Line an 8-inch cake pan with parchment. Do not grease the sides.

6. Pour batter into pan and drop blueberries on top. Bake for about 45 minutes.

Let cool before serving.

Ingredients

(Makes an 8-inch cake)

• 1 1/2 ripe medium avocados
• 1 stick butter
• 3/4 - 1 cups sugar
• 2 eggs and 1 yolk
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4 cup blueberries