Once the sweet gingery aroma hits your nostrils, it will feel just like Christmas.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Spelt flour
Baking powder
Ground cinnamon
Salt
Coconut or rapadura sugar
Maple syrup

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Ginger Snap Cookie Shapes

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Author Berleena Eberle for Brenda Janschek Health & Lifestyle

Ingredients

• 2 cups spelt flour
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1 tsp - 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tspn sea salt
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• ¼ cup of coconut or rapadura sugar
• ¼ cup of maple syrup
• 1 large egg well beaten
• 1-2 lemons zested

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree. Line 2 trays with unbleached baking paper.
• In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt.
• In separate bowl mix together the melted butter, coconut sugar, maple syrup, egg and lemon zest.
• Pour butter and sugar mixture over the flour and mix together to form a dough. If dough is too wet add a little more flour, if too dry add a little water.
• Dust some flour over a clean and dry bench top. Using a rolling pin, roll dough to 1 cm thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes of approx 20 +cookies laying on pre prepared baking paper.
• Bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies slightly darken and become fragrant.

Notes

Lunchbox friendly

If you make these and share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek.

Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life!

If you’d like to see a round up of our favourite holiday celebration food recipes just click here.

Berleena has been the wonderful recipe developer helping me create a series of delicious recipes, here’s a bit more about her…

Berleena Eberle — Food Mindset Coach
Berleena specialises in helping her clients develop a healthy relationship with food and their body. Her clients know how to deal with food triggers, let go of guilt, identify cravings and make healthy eating simple again with nutrient-rich, real food. Berleena strips back nutritional confusion to develop an intuitive eating approach.

The scent takes me back to my childhood when my relatives would sit together and enjoy a cup of cardamom-spiced Turkish coffee after indulging in a Middle Eastern feast. It’s a little more exy then your average spice, but remember, a little goes a long way.

This simple cake was truly scrummy and the kids totally loved it so most of it got packed into their lunch boxes for the week (damn them!).

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Cardamon and Spice Cake

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 1 cup white spelt flour
• 1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
• 1 cup coconut sugar
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamon straight out of pod if possible
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 125 g butter chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk

Instructions

• Heat oven to 170 C and grease a 20cm x 30 cm lamington pan and line the base with baking paper.
• In a food processor, blend flours, baking powder, sugar, spices and butter until ingredients resemble breadcrumbs and transfer the mixture to a medium bowl.
• Whisk egg, bicarb of soda and milk in a bowl and add to the flour mixture.
• Mix until just combined.
• Pour into the prepared tin and bake the cake for approx 30-40mins then turn onto a wire rack to cool down.
• Cut into squares and serve with a hot chocolate or warm cup of herbal tea.

Thermomix Instructions

• Pop all the ingredients into the thermomix and mix SP5/15 seconds
• Pour into the prepared tin and bake the cake for approx 30-40mins then turn onto a wire rack to cool down.

Notes

Natural New Age Mum made my cake and loved it.
She tweaked it to make it DAIRY FREE for a friend by using coconut oil and coconut milk instead of butter and milk.
She also added some thinly sliced pear to the top and reported back that the cake was divine!

If you make this recipe and share on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek.

Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook.

Some other delicious healthy cakes you might like are Double Chocolate Banana Slab Cake and Hot Chocolate Cake with Honeyed Cream.

With all the goodness from the coconut oil and good quality eggs, and a bit of a pick-me-up with the cacao, and potassium and vitamins and minerals from the dates, I think these make a nice healthy lunchbox treat. Miss 8 has ordered hers with cream already!

I always hold my breath around the family taste test. After all, I’m using quality organic ingredients which are a bit of an investment, so there’s nothing worse than a recipe flop.

But this one got the family thumbs up, though apparently it’s more of a ‘Brownie Cake’ than a straight-out brownie.

It’s easy to make, lovely and moist, and is extra-delish served with fresh berries in season.

For more favourite healthy treats to create (and eat!) which are perfect for lunchboxes, my Easy Wholefood Lunchboxes recipe ebook is proof of this with family faves like Coconut Rough Cookies, Muesli Biscuits, and Strawberry Chia Jam Drops, to name a few.

Many of the ingredients in this recipe can be sourced from my one-stop-favourite, organic wholefoods online store, The Wholefood Collective. They go to great lengths to ensure everything they source is amazing quality, they stock all my favorite products and I don’t even have to leave the house! Oh and the cherry on the cake is they donate profits to improve food security for vulnerable Aussies.

Here are some of the ingredients you’ll need:

Coconut Flour
Cacao Powder
Medjool Dates
Baking Powder
Coconut sugar or Rapadura sugar
Coconut oil
Coconut milk
Dark chocolate chips

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Brownie Cake

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 cup cacao powder
• 2/3 cup Medjool dates chopped
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup coconut sugar or rapadura sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unhomogenised milk or coconut milk if dairy free
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate-chips optional

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 160 degrees C
• Lightly grease a 20cm square tin and line with baking paper
• Process all the dry ingredients and dates in food processor or Thermomix
• Add wet ingredients and continue to process until just combined (don't overmix)
• Stir through dark choc-chips
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin lined with unbleached baking paper, and bake for 20 minutes or until set
• Remove from oven and set aside to cool before cutting into squares
• Enjoy plain or with cream and raspberries

Do you bake with coconut flour? I love using it for the occasional healthy treat, but you need to remember that it doesn’t behave like other flour in baking. A small amount of coconut flour sucks up lots of liquid very quickly!

I hope you enjoy my Brownie Cake recipe!

If you share them on instagram, remember to tag me @brendajanschek.

Otherwise feel free to pm me your photos via Facebook. I get a total kick out of seeing you bring my recipes to life.

Some other healthy lunchbox treats you might like are Raspberry Coconut Squares and Orange and Poppyseed Bars.

The ginger and molasses in this recipe produce a taste reminiscent of gingerbread men and all things Christmas. Experiment with other ingredients like dates and walnuts, but this one is hard to go past on its own, judging by the ‘double thumbs up’ from the ladies at the workshop not to mention my family!

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Ginger and Molasses Loaf

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Author Brenda Janschek

Ingredients

• 1 cup white spelt flour
• 1 cup wholemeal spelt flour
• 3 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• small pinch nutmeg
• 1.5 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 100 gms butter
• 1/2 cup coconut sugar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 1/4 cup yoghurt
• 1 egg beaten

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease a loaf tin and line it with parchment paper.
• Sift the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, bicarb soda and sea salt into a bowl and combine.
• Warm the butter, sugar, molasses, and maple syrup in a saucepan over low heat until the butter has melted. Pour this into the dry mixture and add the yoghurt and egg and stir until just combined.
• Pour into the loaf tin and bake for 40-50 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn onto a wire rack.
• Once cool wrap it up in baking paper keep in fridge for 3-5 days before eating. Or just bock in whenever you want to!
• Slice and spread with butter and enjoy!

Other recipes you might like…

Ginger Biscuits

Ginger, Cardamon, Molasses Cookie Hearts

Cardamon Spice Cake