I have been on a mission the last few weeks. I wanted to create a birthday cake for Persephone that is:
– not full of sugar, honey and maple syrup. That is actually free from any added sugars.
– isn’t full of weird stabilisers/ strange ingredients/ obscure fillers
– tastes delicious, doesn’t just look good
I read, and researched, and read – SO many recipes. I feel like I’ve got to place where I can vaguely suss out a recipe on reading it. I don’t think I’m perfect by any means, and I’m prepared to be proven wrong, but gosh so many of them included weird substitutions. No I don’t want gluten free, or vegan, or beans in my cake. I just want to make a delicious cake that hasn’t got any added sugar in it. And I’m happy to say I got there. Now I hate it when people ‘write’ recipes which they have just ripped off from somewhere/ someone else and tweaked one or two things. Not cool. So to be totally clear, I found a sweet recipe on the Waitrose website which is what inspired the one below. No fussy ingredients. Super quick and easy. If cake making isn’t your bag, I urge you to still give this a try. I promise you this is the least intimidating one you’ll find.
It is truly delicious, a flavoursome cake that is moist and moreish. For Pea’s birthday I made two times the recipe and layered them up with double the quantity of the cream cheese frosting recipe below. However, you genuinely don’t need it if you want to stay 100% away from anything sweet. The cake is dreamy enough on its own.
Apple + Cinnamon No Sugar Cake
(The layer cake above is 2 x this recipe)
- 150g butter, at room temperature
- 125g medjool dates
- 3 apples, around 325g in weight
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 large eggs
- 80g ground almonds
- 75g self raising flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- Preheat your oven to 180/ gas mark 4. Grease and line the base of a 20cm springform cake tin.
- Peel the apples, and roughly chop, discarding the core. Place in a food processor and add the butter cut into chunks. Tear in the dates, discarding the stones. Blitz till smooth, then add the remaining ingredients. Pulse until just come together.
- Spoon the mixture into the cake tin, level it out and place in the middle of the oven. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
(This makes enough for one cake, if you want to achieve what I did with Persephone’s cake, double the recipe below. Equally if you really don’t want to use any sugar, leave out the maple and just finely grate in the zest of an orange, it still works I promise).
- 1 x 280g pack of full fat cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
Beat the cream cheese in a mixing bowl with the maple syrup until just mixed together. Use to top the cake. Or, if you are making a double batch of cakes (2 sponges), double the cream cheese quantity, and use to fill and cream coat the cake too.
Sounds delicious as well as healthier!
Absolutely! I imagine so x
Yum! I often add courgettes, bananas, anything but sugar to cakes and muffins these days for my daughter (& me & my husband!). They still taste great but are way healthier. Although I have to admit I didn’t for her birthday cake this year (she’s 6). I’ll be trying this once I can get my hands on some dates (hard to come by in Seoul). Happy first birthday Persephone x
Thank you! Love all this and totally agree. I imagine when P is 6 she’ll want a full sugar number too but its all about balance right?!
That’s a beautiful cake! I’m totally making it this week.
Thats! I hope you like it!
Sounds great! How did you make the elderflower lemon + almond cake?
Hello! I will write that up soon I promise x
Has anyone tried using coconut oil as opposed to butter?
I havent, Im afraid, I imagine it would work well though.
Hello! LOVE the sound of this recipe, going to test it out this weekend. Couple of questions: to create the layered version, did you bake one big cake with double the mixture and then slice into 3 layers, or did you bake separate cakes? And once iced with the cream cheese does it need to be kept in the fridge? Thanks! Xx
Hi Emma!
I baked two separate cakes, and split them into two. I only used 3 of the sponges as we ate the 4th to test it! And yes, I would keep in the fridge but if its there for too long the cream cheese starts to crackle a little. Its fine, mine did, I just smoothed over it with a palette knife. Hope you like it! x
Thank you for the lovely recipe. I made this yesterday without blending, just finely chopped the apple and dates and it worked great. Served with a wedge of Stilton
OOOOH love that! What a fab idea x
Could I use flax egg instead of egg or an egg replacement powder?
Hi Jenny,
I haven’t experimented with any egg alternatives but I imagine an egg replacement powder would be fine. Let me know how you get on!
G
Newbie question. Could you use almond flour instead of ground almonds?
Hi Morgan,
As with another poster – you can use flour but the almonds give moisture so it will need less flour. Use 75g of flour and it should be ok – the fruit in the recipe should bring enough moisture for it to work.
Good luck!
G
This cake sounds amazing. If I omit the almonds, would I add the same amount of extra self raising flour instead? Would that work? Thanks
Hi Andrea,
You could definitely do that but bear in mind the almonds do add moisture. Use 75g self raising flour and it should be ok as there is lots of fruit.
Good luck!
G
This is a very good recipe. I just did a test and it came out great. Very crumbly and moist and just the right amount of sweetness. We will be making it for my niece’s 1st birthday