VIV Says: Blog

Naturally Nora's all-natural frosting and cake mixes appeal to an adult palate.

We’re all for beignets and brûlées, macaroons and mousse, but sometimes what we really crave are the simple desserts of our youth — a double-layer yellow cake with chocolate frosting or chocolate cupcakes iced with vanilla. Truth is, some of those confections of yore came right out of a box, but these days we’re a lot more health-conscious than we were back when we counted the candles on our birthday cake on our fingers.

We’ve picked up many a cake mix at the supermarket, only to put it down again when we read the nutrition label and saw ingredients that included “mono” this and “modified” that and any number of things that ended in “phosphate.” So, we were thrilled to discover Naturally Nora, a line of all-natural baking mixes that was launched in the spring of 2008 by former Campbell Soup Co. executive Nora Schultz, and that contain no artificial flavors, colors, preservatives or hydrogenated oils.

Last week we whipped up a Surprising Stars cake (yellow cake with bits of chocolate cookies) topped with Cheerful Chocolate frosting. The results fulfilled our childhood fantasies while appealing to our adult palate: The cake was more dense than spongy, the frosting thick and fudgy but not overly sweet. The mixes are all “dairy optional”; they can made with vanilla soy milk. (We used lactose-free milk and it worked beautifully.)

Next up: Sunny Yellow cupcakes with A Lot’A Dots frosting. What’s your healthy tweak of a favorite childhood treat?