My son Mitchell, who just turned 16, chose this recipe as his birthday cake. The original recipe was vegan, but still contained non-wholefood ingredients such as oil and sugar. All it took was a few tweaks… and the results were so spectacular, my husband has already put in his order to have this as his birthday cake!
Ingredients:
1 cup plant milk (I used oat milk)
½ cup date sugar*
2 tbsp ground flaxseed/linseed (preferably golden flax) whisked with 6 tbsp water
¼ unsweetened applesauce**
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 cups wholemeal flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground allspice
2 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin (I used Granny Smith)
Almond Topping
¼ cup date sugar
6 tbsp plant milk
4 tbsp desiccated coconut
½ cup thinly sliced almonds
Method:
Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a 23 cm round or heart-shaped cake pan with baking paper, or use a silicon cake pan.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the plant milk, date sugar, flax/linseed mixture, applesauce, vanilla and lemon zest, and stir until completely blended.
Sift flour, baking powder and spices into the wet mixture, and fold together until well-combined. Batter will be quite thick.
Spoon the batter into prepared cake pan, arrange sliced apples evenly over the top of the batter and bake for 20 minutes.
Prepare the almond topping while cake is baking.
Thermomix method
Combine date sugar, plant milk, coconut and sliced almonds in Thermomix bowl and cook at 100°C on speed 1 until cake timer rings, adding extra plant milk if mixture becomes too thick (it should be pourable) or starts to catch.
Regular method
Combine date sugar, plant milk, coconut and sliced almonds in a small saucepan, bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until the cake timer rings. Add extra plant milk if mixture becomes too thick (it should be pourable) or starts to catch.
Remove cake from the oven and pour the almond mixture evenly over the top of the apples. Return cake to the oven for another 25 minutes. Insert a toothpick or wooden skewer into the cake to test that it’s done; skewer should come out clean.
Let cake cool completely on a wire rack before slicing and serving.
* I buy date sugar from iHerb. If you don’t already have an account with iHerb, you can use the coupon code UTE208 to get $5 off your first order.
** If you can’t find unsweetened applesauce in your health food shop, buy unsweetened apple purée – the kind that’s sold in the kids’ snack food section at the supermarket.
I make applesauce in my Thermomix by blending cored, chopped apples for 5 seconds at speed 8, then cooking at 100°C for 10 minutes on speed 2, then blending for 10 seconds on speed 10.
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