Pumpkin Pecan Protein Cake

I don't know what it is about this time of the year, but without fail it always seems to FLY by. Back in October I looked at my calendar and saw that my project deadlines were nicely spaced out and would carry out between November and December, all wrapping up conveniently in mid-December prior to my holiday time at home. Well wouldn't you know, ALL of my projects decided they wanted to move up the deadlines and get things completed before the end of November. 

(Cue madness and insane amounts of work to be completed in half the time)

I had every intention of posting this recipe for you a few weeks ago, but then my day job called and I had to work around the clock just to finish those deadlines, leaving zero time for My Engineered Nutrition. No good! I just couldn't WAIT to share this with you. I know that most of you who follow my recipes like protein powder recipes that are quick and on-the-go. Since it is the holiday season, this is a bit of a special treat:

Pumpkin Pecan Protein Cake!

The holidays are filled with gatherings of family and friends, which are great, but usually they are also filled with decadent foods and sweet treats. Don't get me wrong, I love it as much as the next person, but I'd also love to be able to lighten things up if I can. This cake is the perfect treat! I bet you wouldn't even guess it was made with protein powder unless someone told you, it's that good! 

Compared to most sweets, it is low in fat, carbohydrates and sugar. What's not to love about that? As an added bonus, I'm also going to go out there on a limb and say you can eat this as breakfast cake as well. No judgement here.

I hope you give this a try and let me know how you like it. Happy Holidays!

Pumpkin Pecan Protein Cake

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Bake Time: 20-25 minutes

Servings: 16 slices

Ingredients: 

• 2 scoops True Nutrition Cinnamon Bun Whey Protein (1/2 cup)
• 1-1/2 cup gluten free all-purpose flour (I used Gluten Free Baking Flour but typical all-purpose flour will work as well)
• 1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup pumpkin puree 
• 3/4 cup lowfat Greek yogurt (2%)
• 1 egg
• 4 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1/4 cup light cream cheese (2 oz)
• 3/4 cup lowfat Greek yogurt (2%)
• 1 tsp pure maple syrup

Baking Accessories:

• 13 inch x 9 inch baking pan
• Parchment paper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cake pan by greasing with coconut oil or butter and lining with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Toast pecans by spreading them out on a baking sheet and placing in oven for 5-10 minutes. Be sure to keep a close watch on them so not to burn! Once toasted, roughly chop pecans. Set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl combine your dry ingredients: whey protein, flour, coconut palm sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
4. In a stand mixer or large mixing bowl with hand mixer, combine your wet ingredients: pumpkin puree, Greek yogurt, egg, melted butter and vanilla. Mix at medium speed until well combined. Add dry ingredients in 3 batches, mixing at medium speed until incorporated. 
5. Fold pecans into batter with a spatula until evenly mixed in.
6. Pour batter into baking pan. Bake for 20 - 25 mins or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Be sure not to over bake the cake since there is whey protein in the batter and it could easily become dry and rubbery. Allow to cool 10 minutes before icing. 
7. While the cake is cooling, combine light cream cheese, Greek yogurt and maple syrup in small bowl and mix with a hand mixer. Once cake has cooled, ice with cream cheese frosting and slice into 16 pieces and enjoy! Store remaining cake in refrigerator to keep fresh.

Nutritional Information (1 slice):

145 calories - 8 g Protein, 14 g Carbohydrates, 7 g Fat

Apple Cinnamon Protein Coffee Cake

I always find it hard to say what my FAVORITE recipe is. There are just too many great ones to choose from, plus it is usually highly dependent on my mood and hunger level. 

That, of course, was before this creation: Apple Cinnamon Protein Coffee Cake. Sure, it's a mouthful for a recipe title, but believe me - you will want mouthful after mouthful of this delicious and guilt-free coffee cake!

This coffee cake is great for an on-the-go breakfast, but you can also dress it up and serve it for a brunch party. I recently made this for a few girlfriends that came over for brunch and it was a hit! While this cake may seem like an indulgence, it is packed with protein (14 g per slice!) making it far healthier than any other morning pastry. The apples help to keep this coffee cake incredibly moist which is usually hard to achieve when baking with whey protein. What really makes this coffee cake is the walnut streusel topping! It is the perfect finishing touch to this healthy breakfast treat. 

I love that this is such a simple baked good. I know some of my other recipes can take a little more effort with muffin tins or donut pans but with this you literally mix everything in one bowl together and dump it into a single cake pan. 

 I've recently switched up my training and I'm almost exclusively training at 6am everyday before work. I forgot how much I love that burst of endorphins before work, not to mention how focused I am all morning. I don't eat breakfast prior to lifting (I actually prefer weight training fasted first thing!) but I do have my coffee with collagen and MCT oil following. This coffee cake is perfect to have with my coffee after a hard morning workout!

Well, now that the secret is out and you know what my favorite recipes is I hope you give this a try! 

Psst! This recipe uses True Nutrition Cinnamon Bun Whey Protein and I can't recommend this protein enough. I really do stand by their products and I know I'm getting a high quality protein powder at an extremely affordable price. Want to give it a try? Use the code 'MYENG' at checkout for 5% off your entire order!

Apple Cinnamon Protein Coffee Cake

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Bake Time: 25-30 minutes

Servings: 10 slices

Ingredients: 

• 3 scoops True Nutrition Cinnamon Bun Whey Protein (3/4 cup)
• 1-1/4 cup gluten free all-purpose flour (I used Gluten Free Baking Flour but typical all-purpose flour will work as well)
• 2 tbsp coconut palm sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 medium green apples, peeled, cored and diced
• 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
• 2 egg
• 1/2 cup applesauce, unsweetened
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla

Walnut Streusel Topping

• 1/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp coconut palm sugar
• 1 tbsp butter

Baking Accessories:

• 9 inch cake pan

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare cake pan by greasing with coconut oil or butter. Set aside.
2. Toast walnuts by spreading them out on a baking sheet and placing in oven for 5-10 minutes. Be sure to keep a close watch on them so not to burn!
3. In a small bowl combine the remaining streusel topping ingredients. Cut the butter into very small pieces and then add to the dry ingredients. Mix with a fork until the butter has formed into small balls and is well coated. If necessary use fingers. Add toasted walnuts and continue to mix. Set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl combine your dry ingredients: whey protein, flour, coconut palm sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
5. In a stand mixer or large mixing bowl with hand mixer, combine your wet ingredients: greek yogurt, eggs, applesauce, melted butter and vanilla. Mix at medium speed until well combined. Add dry ingredients and mix and medium speed until incorporated. 
6. Fold apples into batter with a spatula until apples are evenly mixed in.
7. Pour batter into greased pan. Sprinkle walnut streusel topping on top of the cake. Bake for 25 - 30 mins or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Be sure not to over bake the cake since there is whey protein in the batter and it could easily become dry and rubbery. Allow to cool 10 minutes before slices. Serve warm or store in air-tight container for later. 

Nutritional Information (1 slice):

210 calories - 13.5 g Protein, 23.5 g Carbohydrates, 6.7 g Fat

Fig, Caramel and Goat Cheese Chocolate Cakes

Once upon a time I was really into baking cupcakes.

OK, it was borderline obsessive. Almost every week I was creating a new pairing of flavors and would pawn these cupcakes off on my friends, family, coworkers...really anyone that was willing to eat a cupcake. I definitely had a reputation of being "the cupcake girl". However, this was a few years ago, before I really understood nutrition like I do now and the direct effect it had on my health and how I functioned. Once I started educating myself on proper nutrition and the importance of high quality of ingredients, my cupcakes comprised of all-purpose flour, refined sugar and artificial coloring were the first to go. While I love baking, I gave it a break for quite some time. 

While reorganizing my baking ingredients and accessories Saturday I suddenly had the urge to bake again. I was reminded that I had these fantastic vintage fluted baking molds that my mom sent me. I've had them for months (years?!) and never known what to do with them. They are traditionally used as brioche molds, but I immediately saw them as sophisticated cupcakes.

I recently saw a cake on Pinterest that was garnished with FIGS, walnuts and caramel sauce. It is absolutely stunning - bad part is the website was in German and the cake (from the half translation I was able to manage with Google Translate) was not gluten free. 

That wasn't going to stop me.

The thing about baking is that you can't really "wing it" like you can cooking. You need to have the right ratios of ingredients - it is a science. I turned to one of my favorite chefs, Simone Miller, for the most amazing gluten free chocolate cake recipe. 

I stuck to what I knew I could create myself: frosting and caramel sauce. Once you've made one buttercream, you've made 100. It is so fundamentally simple and you can't really mess it up. Not sweet enough? Add more sweetener. Not thick enough? Add more butter. Simple. Caramel is also basic: sugar, butter, cream. 

These little beauties are topped with a goat cheese and mascarpone frosting, a drizzle of decadent caramel sauce and garnished with a fresh fig. Goat cheese and fig go together like peanut butter and jelly. Its a match made in heaven. Goat cheese and normally thought of as a savory flavor, but it brings an amazing element of character to this not-so-sweet buttercream. 

Make no mistake - these aren't "healthy" to the point where you can go crazy and have 5 and call it dinner. However, there are certainly occasions that call for a special treat, and when those occasions arise you should always aim to use the highest quality of ingredients (i.e. ditch the heavily processed flour and artificial food coloring).

I hope you give these a try for your next special occasion...even if the occasion is simply surviving a week of work making it to the weekend!

Fig, Caramel and Goat Cheese Chocolate Cakes

No Joke Dark Chocolate Cake

I used Zenbelly's No Joke Dark Chocolate Cake recipe for these cakes.  It is FANTASTIC. Not overly sweet but rich with chocolate flavor. I made the recipe she has in her cookbook which is scaled to a slightly larger batch. I was able to make 8 larger fluted cakes and 6 smaller, using the molds shown above. I would imagine this recipe will make 12 cupcakes. 

If you use the molds like I did (and recommend!) then make sure you grease these VERY liberally or else you won't be able to remove them. You should also  plan on leveling out the cakes once they have cooled and been removed from the molds. Slice any excess from the bottoms so that the cakes sit flat. 

Goat Cheese Frosting

Servings: 12

Ingredients:

• 8 oz mascarpone cheese
• 5 oz goat cheese
• 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar OR homemade unrefined powdered sugar

Directions:

Combine mascarpone cheese and goat cheese in a large mixing. Using an electric hand mixer or standing mixer, beat on low for about 1 minute to cream the cheeses together. Add powdered sugar and beat on high for about 3 minutes until frosting begins to firm up and hold shape. Transfer into a pastry bag fitted with the decorating tip of your choice and frost the tops of the cakes. You can also simply transfer the frosting to a Ziploc bag and snip a small hole in one of the corners. 

Caramel Sauce

Yields roughly 1 cup of caramel sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 tbsp grassfed butter
• 3/4 cup coconut palm sugar (this a rich, unrefined sugar - in a pinch you could substitute light brown sugar but coconut palm sugar is recommended!)
• 1/2 cup half & half
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Mix butter and sugar together in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar melts into the butter, about 1 minute. Increase heat to medium and slowly pour the half & half into the saucepan and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and continue mixing intermittently, allowing sauce to thicken, about 5 minutes.  Add vanilla and cook for an additional minute to combine. Make sure you keep an eye on stirring this mixture as it cooks or else the butter may separate from the sauce and create a layer of oil on the top. 

Pull mixture from stove and allow to cool. Transfer to a glass jar and continue to cool mixture in the refrigerator. You won't use all of these caramel sauce on the cupcakes so you will have some leftovers - it tastes great drizzled into your coffee or over a scoop of coconut ice cream!

Assembly of cakes

Servings: 12

• No Joke Chocolate Cakes 
• Goat Cheese Frosting
• Caramel Sauce
• 6 fresh figs, quartered

Directions:

Top each cupcake with frosting. Next, drizzle caramel sauce over each cake. I transferred the sauce to a Ziploc sandwich bag and cut the smallest hole in the corner which worked great for drizzling. Lastly, garnish each cake with 2 cut pieces of fig.