Apple Spice Cake

Apple picking, a family favorite fall tradition.  Spending the day with your loved ones, enjoying the crisp air, a hayride to the apple orchard, and snacking on a variety of crisp apples as you’re picking them off the tree.  The anticipation on the car ride home, thinking of all the different apple recipes you can make with the days pickings.

“One of my favorite apple recipes has always been apple spice cake, not only does it taste great warm out of the oven, but personally, I think it tastes even better the next day, chilled out of the fridge”

With this being my first fall season on the Keto Way Of Eating, I knew right away that I was going to have to take my old Apple Spice Cake recipe, and find a way to Ketorize it!
So….How do you make an apple spice cake, when the main ingredient isn’t an accepted fruit on the keto way of eating?
Going over my list of acceptable fruit and veggies, I suddenly had a Mad Scientist moment….A Faux Apple….What is a Faux Apple?
One of my favorite vegetables is now going to mimic my favorite fruit.
What is it you may ask?   Zucchini my friends….Zucchini.

So how do you get a zucchini to taste like an apple?
You peel it, deseed it, dice it up into apple sized cubes, and then the magic!
You boil it in some cinnamon apple tea, until it takes on the flavor of cinnamon apples.
Luckily for us, zucchini are great at holding their shape, whilst also being a blank canvas for absorbing more dominant flavors….And….It works!
In the end, once baked in a cake, you can’t tell these things from apples.

I started out with not the highest of expectations, because let’s be honest, some of the ingredients that make a lot of those baked goodies and treats taste so nice, aren’t so nice for us and our health, and some alternatives just don’t hit the mark.  However, this recipe has Far Exceeded our expectations, and I hope it will yours also.
As always, let us know what you think, we love hearing from you.

“Here’s to enjoying apple baked goods, once again”

INGREDIENTS

DRY INGREDIENTS
2 cups almond flour
1 cup vanilla whey protein powder*
1/2 cup erythritol/stevia blend Sweetener (we use Truvia or Splenda Naturals)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum(not necessary but does improve texture)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp apple pie spice
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

WET INGREDIENTS
3 large eggs
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup Swerve brown sugar**
1/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/3 cup reserved liquid from faux apple mixture(recipe below)
1/2 tsp apple extract/favoring

FAUX APPLE MIXTURE
2 cups zucchini, peeled, deseeded, diced
3 teabags of Cinnamon Apple Herbal Tea(we used Celestial)
1 1/2 TBSP erythritol/stevia blend Sweetener
Enough water to just cover the zucchini, and steep the teabags (appx 1.5 – 2 cups)

1. Turn oven onto 325F
2. In medium saucepan, place diced zucchini, water, teabags and sweetener over medium/high heat, stir, and bring to a boil, then down to a slow simmer, until tea has steeped and zucchini is slightly tender(not too much). Approx 10-15 mins.
3. Remove the teabags, drain the liquid, but reserve 1/3 of a cup of liquid. Place drained zucchini to the side.
4. In a medium sized mixing bowl, place all the dry ingredients, except for the walnuts, together and stir until well combined.
5. In a large mixing bowl, beat softened butter and swerve brown sugar until smooth.
   Add eggs, and apple extract, and beat for another minute.
6. Add 1/2 of the dry mixture to the wet mixture, and beat in, then add the almond milk until incorporated.  Add second half of the dry mixture, and repeat the process, only this time adding the reserved apple tea mixture until well incorporated.
7. Fold in walnuts, and zucchini evenly into cake batter.
8. Place in oven for 1hr 5mins, or until skewer comes out cleanly
9. Let sit on cooling rack for minimum of 30 mins.  Then serve with powdered swerve or powdered erythritol/stevia blend and maybe some whipped cream.

*If using unflavored whey protein powder, add 2tsp of vanilla extract to wet ingredients.
** If you can’t get Swerve Brown sugar, use 1/3 cup of erythritol/stevia blend in its place,        but it will lack a little of the caramely flavor of the brown swerve.

Serves: 12
Net Carbs: 4g per serving

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