Fat-free cake is a big challenge, but I once had a client who had gone through liver failure, and she couldn’t eat any fats at all.
Usually, when a client has dietary restrictions you can get around it by using soy products or egg replacers, that kind of thing.
But not being able to use any fat is a little difficult.
That eliminates butter, sour cream, oil, and also egg yolks and any soy products that have a fat content.
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Jump to Recipe
After talking about exactly what she needed to avoid and what was okay, we decided that I’d do a variation on a pumpkin cake recipe that I’d been messing around with.
The moisture in the pumpkin itself would offset some of the softness that was going to be lost when you pull the fat out of the formula.
I did the top tier in the pumpkin, and the other tiers were all “normal” recipes.
I used apricot preserves on the cake, then used a fat-free fondant to cover it.
For an article about cake pans, click here! And for a recipe for pumpkin cinnamon rolls click here.
This cake turns out pretty dense, but it seems to mellow out after a couple of days.
The beginning texture is more like a muffin, and after it sits it gets to be more like a cake.
If you can let it stay around that long, since it tastes so good.
(For another article about a recipe for vegan oatmeal cookies, click here.)
Taking into account how long it lasted in my house when I did the test batch, I’d just make it in muffin form for family.
If making it for a client, bake it a day earlier than usual to let it sit.
Fat-Free Pumpkin Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups Cake Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
- 1 1/2 cups Sugar
- 1 1/8 cups Applesauce
- 4 Egg Whites
- 15 ounce Canned Pure Pumpkin
- 1 tsp Vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Prep two 8″ round pans by lining the bottoms with parchment paper. Don’t grease the sides of the pan!
- Sift dry ingredients into a bowl and set aside.
- Combine the applesauce and the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat for a couple of minutes until the sugar is well-blended.
- Add the egg whites and beat until incorporated.
- Add the pumpkin and the vanilla and beat well.
- Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix until they’re just incorporated.
- Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until they’re done!
- Let the cakes cool completely in the pans.
