Moist cinnamon apple coffee cake drizzled with homemade low carb caramel sauce. Everything you love about fall in one recipe!
Okay, so today is supposed to be a Makeover Monday post but already I am getting off track and straying from the schedule. And here we are, only the second week in! Welcome to the world of Carolyn, disorganized blogger and hater of all things routine. That girl, she can’t stick to a schedule if her life depended on it! Although, truth be told, this one is due to circumstances beyond my control. I have a great makeover recipe for you, but because it is part of larger campaign, it’s being pushed to tomorrow or Wednesday. And so, Makeover Monday becomes Makeover Tuesday or Wednesday. Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, does it?
However, to appease you, I offer up this delectable low carb Caramel Apple Coffee Cake. Apple season is in full swing here in New England, and apple-picking is one of my favourite things about fall. I have always loved apples and back in the day when I had a fully working pancreas, I ate at least one a day. Apples are surprisingly high carb, so I now limit myself to half an apple here aor there. Or I eat one before I go for a run or work out, since I will burn the sugars up quickly anyway. But they still rank among my favourite fruits and there are usually plenty of apples in our fruit drawer. They’re infinitely portable and great for kids’ lunches, since they won’t smoosh like softer fruit.
Even if I couldn’t eat apples at all, I’d probably still go apple-picking every fall. It’s a tradition in these parts and it was when I was growing up in Toronto too. Getting out of the city and into the apple orchards on a warm, sunny fall day makes the world seem like a friendlier place. And those sun-warmed apples picked right off the tree…truth be told, I’d run a whole marathon, just to be able to eat one. That crisp flesh, crunching under your teeth, releasing the tangy juice and sweetness onto your tongue. Yep, that’s worth some serious mileage in my books!
This recipe idea has been floating around in my brain ever since the kids went back to school, and I could hardly wait until we went apple-picking to make it. I knew I’d have to go light on the actual apple in the cake, to keep the carb count down. But I helped the flavour along a bit with some apple flavouring in the cake batter. Then I swirled in some homemade low carb caramel sauce into the batter, and sprinkled the top with a cinnamon crumb mixture halfway through baking. And then a drizzle of some more low carb caramel sauce to finish it off.
Now that’s what I love about fall!
Keto Caramel Apple Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Cinnamon Crumb:
- ¼ cup almond flour
- 1 tbsp Swerve Sweetener
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp butter
Cake:
- 3 cups almond flour
- 6 tbsp unflavored whey protein powder
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ½ cup Swerve Sweetener
- 3 large eggs
- ½ tsp apple flavoring
- ¼ tsp stevia extract
- 2/3 cup almond milk
- 1 medium apple, peeled and cored, chopped fine
- 1 recipe Sugar-Free Caramel Sauce
Instructions
Cinnamon Crumb
- Whisk together almond flour, Swerve and cinnamon. Cut in butter and use your fingers to rub together until small crumbs form. Set aside.
Cake
- Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 9-inch springform pan.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together almond flour, whey protein, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
- In a large bowl, beat butter with Swerve until smooth. Beat in eggs, apple flavoring and stevia extract.
- Beat in almond flour mixture in two additions, alternating with almond milk. Stir in chopped apples.
- Spread batter in prepared pan. Drizzle half of the caramel sauce over top and swirl into the batter with a knife.
- Bake 25 minutes, then remove from oven and sprinkle with cinnamon crumb mixture. Bake another 25 minutes, or until golden brown and center is set (if your cake is browning too quickly, cover with foil for the last 15 minutes of baking).
- Remove from oven and let cool. Then run a sharp knife around the inside of the pan to loosen sides. Remove sides and drizzle with remaining caramel sauce.
Nutrition
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I love good coffee cakes that are moist. I finally found this breakfast place that serves excellent blueberry coffee cake (and I’m going this Fri for brunch!). They started to serve apple coffee cake that I had been curious. Now that I saw yours I’m even more excited to taste it. Your coffee cake looks really delicious, Carolyn! I’ll need to save this recipe so that I can make my own (it’s about time!). 🙂
In the caramel sauce, can you use all Swerve and not Xylitol? I don’t use Xylitol, so I am trying to substitute something else. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Yes, but your caramel sauce will harden a lot more. It will still taste good though!
fabulous Carolyn! As always!
I love apples as well and I was keeping myself from eating a lot. With my CGM, I realized that a 4oz tart apple such as a Macintosh is not more than 6-7g each (which is far from the nutrition fact). I can totally eat 1 or 2 per day without even using insulin (I’m type 1). Your cake is lovely. Now I need to bake…
We like to pick the small ones when we go apple picking, so that I can eat a “whole” apple. But the ones you find in the grocery store are typically much larger than 4 oz!
Now that’s the kind of cake I want a big slice of when the weather gets cooler with a nice cup of tea.
That caramel makes it look even more tempting! 🙂
Carolyn, you never cease to amaze me with your wonderful recipes and breathtaking photos! This looks like it would be a wonderful addition at any Thanksgiving dessert table.
I’ve recently discovered your website and have had very good success with your recipes. I’m wondering if there might be a good substitute for the whey powder. It’s not easily obtained where I live. I’ve looked on the Internet and have found only large quantities to order. Plus, I don’t really enjoy the taste. Any suggestions? Thanks so much!
Hi Robin…you won’t get any taste of whey if you use the unflavoured variety. But if you can’t get a hold of it, can you get powdered egg whites?
Thanks so much for your speedy response. Yes, I use powdered egg whites all the time! Protein for protein, right? Would I use the same amount?
I think the same amount would work. I can’t be positive but give it a try!
Robin, you can order unflavored whey protein powder from iherb.com – they deliver all over the world. I ordered a fairly small canister, wasn’t expensive, got here (Israel) in about a month. And shipping is cheap, too – I pay $4 for any package that is under 4lbs in weight.
Thanks Deborah! I’ll definitely check that out.
This is such a beautiful cake!!
Wow this sounds just delish! Was hoping to make it for family visiting soon but they have nut allergies and this would be deadly for them … and I don’t mean on the hips.
I’ll have to make it for me and hubby, sigh, so sad, too bad … I’ll have to freeze most of it, LOL for continued enjoyment.
WHOA!! What a cake! And that caramel drizzle…I need this immediately!
My husband is not a coffee cake fan… but me?? I eat both of our shares!! And add apple to it? A total hit!! LOVE this recipe!!!
I’ve not seen Swerve in our neck of the woods yet. What would you substitute in place of it?
Any brand of erythritol should work.
Beautiful job on this coffee cake, Carolyn!
This looks superb. I will share this one on my FB page 🙂
Thank you!
What a beautiful fall cake Carolyn – sounds like such a warm comforting treat!
First of all, your blog is absolutely amazing and has really helped me find recipes that I can make to accomodate the rest of my family’s standard diet. They love all the new dishes I’m making for them and I get to enjoy them too. Also, I didn’t know you grew up in Toronto! The apples are absolutely huge here, and when I went apple picking last weekend I came home with over 25 lbs of apples and no idea how to cook them into something low carb. Thank you so much for this recipe, it’s a life saver!!
That’s a LOT of apples. I like to do a big canning of apple sauce for my kids when I have that many apples.
Is there a reason for combining xylitol and swerve in the caramel sauce? I love to use xylitol but our little doggies get into our trash and after a couple of small panics I decided to switch to eyrithritol instead. O.O
erythritol doesn’t stay in solution and your caramel sauce will re-crystallize and harden. That said, it will still taste really good!
Awesome, I think I’ll give it a go with all eyrithritol and make them into muffins as my hubby will most likely reheat when he eats them :). His fave breakfast used to be these rich pumpkin and butterscotch muffins that are definitely not low carb or sugar free, I think this will be a great substitute !!
I contemplated making these muffins instead of cake, so I think they would work well. The bake time will be less, of course.
Do you think it would taste good without the apple extract?
Absolutely! Sub in 1 tsp vanilla extract instead.
I’m trying this weekend with maple extract…. really excited!
This is like my dream dessert!! Caramel….apple…..I’m drooling!
I cooked this cake yesterday and it is delicious! I did make a few changes as I didn’t have Whey, Apple flavoring, and out of Xanthum gum. I used Collagen instead of whey, vanilla flavoring, and grass-fed gelatin instead of Xanthum gum in making caramel sauce. I used a few drops of Maple syrup for color and flavor. I also put walnuts and a few raisins in the cake! We don’t have a weight problem just on a low carb diet because wed have low blood sugar if we don’t stay on low carb! Thank you so much for this delicious recipe!