The perfect addition to a holiday table or even for breakfast. Even for those who have apple harvest, adding actual apples to this cake recipe is still a better option than a cake full of flour and white and brown sugar. It is super moist and fluffy with a hint of apple from unsweetened apple sauce and it feels like you are biting into stewed apples at the bottom from cooking down the chayote squash in cinnamon and allulose.
This cake is a variation on my vanilla cupcake recipe that I have been using for all my cakes at the bakery. It is just so soft and moist and even more with the addition of the unsweetened applesauce instead of the buttermilk in my recipe. But if you don't want to add the apple sauce you can just use a cup of homemade buttermilk (2 tsp. Vinegar and an unsweetened milk of choice) or you can do sour cream, some kind of low carb yogurt, etc. The only other things I changed is adding the spices which are totally up to you. The original had some nutmeg I didn't include, you can also just use an apple pie spice if you have that on hand.
The original apple spice cake recipe called for diced granny smith apples added raw right to the batter. I swapped out chayote squash which is very hard and takes quite awhile to cook, so I cooked it before adding it to the batter. Plus I wanted to impart some flavor into the chayote squash because it really doesn't taste like much of anything. Stewing it down with cinnamon and allulose really makes it taste yummy in the cake, plus that adds some sweet moisture that you would miss if you just used raw chayote squash. Feel free if you have some apple tea bags to steep them in the liquid while cooking. Or just brew a few in 1/2 cup hot water before adding it to the pot with the squash, cinnamon and allulose. I use allulose because it doesn't crystalize when it cools and we can use the syrup as a drizzle on the cake. Erythritol forms crystals when it cools, you can use it but I would reheat it before serving it on the cake.
For the sweetener for the cake, I use monkfruit/erythritol blend because I think it cuts down on the cooling that straight erythritol has. You can use any 1:1 sugar/sweetener substitute you like. You can always swap out a little allulose for the erythritol but if you swap out too much you may have a baked good that never gets solidly cooked, it may always feel mushy or wet plus it will brown faster. I don't know the threshold exactly, I believe I tired half and half on a big loaf of pumpkin bread and it was almost burned before it was cooked all the way through. So just alter the recipe at your own risk, lol.
My "flours" are always gonna be the same, I don't do almonds or most nuts because I have an allergy in the family and it's just too hard with powdered nuts to keep things from being cross contaminated. If you want to replace the coconut flour you will need 3-4x as much almond flour. The whey protein isolate I have heard different things work at replacing it, I just haven't had the time to experiment, especially when I'm trying to make a profit and sell goods, it's hard to throw product away if it turns out badly. Things like casin protein, beef protein isolate, pea protein have all been mentioned on google or in some comments. Eventually I will take one of my tried and true recipes and buy different powders to test. I just did that once with the pea protein and hated the way it tasted so that was $60 down the drain cause I didn't want to use it in any other desserts. Bottom line my recipes are made up of mostly protein powder so any powder you add it is gonna taste like it, so you have to enjoy the taste of the protein powder. I have use flavored whey powders in the past and they have worked well. They do often have added sweeteners and gums to them though, so you may need to adjust those in the recipes.
This cake can be done in any pans you like. 2-8 inch or 9 inch rounds, a 9x13 or you can cut it in half and do 1-8 or 9 inch or a 8x8 or 9x9. Once cooled it can be cut up and frozen in an airtight contain for a month but it will stay good in the fridge for a few weeks also. I like the syrup on top but would be even more delicious warm with some keto ice cream or keto whipped cream on top!
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Keto "Apple" Spice Cake
Stewed Chayote and Syrup
1 Lb./approx. 2 1/2 Cups Peeled and diced chayote squash
1 Cup Allulose
4 oz./1/2 Cup Water
1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
Batter:
8 oz./1 Cup Avocado Oil or other neutral oil (can sub butter)
192 g/1 Cup Granular 1:1 Alternative Sweetener
96 g/1/2 Cup Brown or Golden 1:1 Alternative Sweetener
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract or any you would like (ex. Caramel or apple)
4 Eggs (room temp)
8 oz./1 Cup Unsweetened Apple Sauce (Can sub homemade alternative buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt, etc.)
120 g/1 1/2 Cup (approx.) Unflavored Whey Protein Isolate
75 g/1/2 Cup+2 Tbs. Coconut Flour
1 tsp. Xanthan Gum
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp. Ground Clove
Instructions
Start by peeling and dicing the squash and getting it on medium heat to simmer with the allulose, water and cinnamon, stirring occasionally until tender and pull out your eggs to come to room temperature(can soak in warm water until ready for them)
While that is going whisk with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer the oil and sweeteners until lighter in color
While that is whipping you can weigh/measure, sift and whisk dry ingredients, measure the apple sauce, and grease and line your pans of choice with spray and parchment paper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and pull squash off heat once tender and set aside until needed
Once the oil and sweetener is whipped up, paler and less grainy add the extract then one egg at a time, scrap down and whip until fully incorporated
While mixer is running stream in the applesauce, scrape down then add all dry ingredients at once and mix, scraping down and mixing some more until everything is mostly incorporated
Take off the mixer and stir to ensure there are no dry ingredients lingering
Strain most of the juice off of the chayote squash and add to the batter and fold in, place batter into prepared pan(s) and bake for 35-45 minutes turning half way through to ensure even baking
Cakes are done when they spring back when touched and toothpick inserted comes out dry
Let cool to room temperature then slice into however many slices you'd like, I cut my 9x13 into 16 and my 9 inch rounds into 10
Macros for 1/16th
230 Calories
18 g Fat
24 g Total Carbs
3 g Fiber
18 g Sugar Alcohol
3 g Net Carbs
10 g Protein
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