No Sugar, Low Fat, Fruit and Nuts Crumble Cake

Happy birthday Bapak! Made this healthy cake especially for his birthday :D

My father, who was diagnosed as diabetics five years ago, is actually a sweet tooth that he is always picking sweet food stealthy, even though he knows they are not good for his health. That is why, to celebrate and to be grateful of the 61 years of his life, I made this healthy fruit cake!

Talking about diabetes, diabetes is actually given by blood, which means I and my brother are on the high healthy risk on the future. In addition, my mother is also having warned cholesterol level. These conditions make me more creative in finding way to eat healthy but tasty.

Despite the fact that healthy cakes now are not hard to find, their selling price are mostly not affordable and unworthy. So why don’t I make them by myself?

Where the sweets came from

There are two kinds of safe sweetener for diabetics that can be opted; artificial and natural. By artificial here I mean the low calories sweetener product such as Equal®, TropicanaSlim®, or Stevia®, while the sweets that is coming from real fruit or honey are in natural sweetener group.

Some of the artificial products even can provide zero calories; with even some percentage of chromium to help reducing the sugar blood level. However, they affect the cake’s leavening badly; as stated by University of Illinois, the high amount of artificial sugar on your cake will make the cake turns flat and dry.

So, always opted for natural sweetener for healthy cake! Even though they add calories in your cake, they also provide additional fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants. Plus, you will need no high amount of butter as the fruit will be adding up the moisture effect.

Now talking about the recipe…

I’ve tried making diabetics friendly cake before, and learned that ingredients with same texture and density will be able to substitute each other. Modified from this Apple-Date Cake, I substituted some ingredients so they fitted with what I had in my kitchen :))) mixed dried fruits + some fresh dates for the dates, oatmeal and kenari (pili nuts) for pecans, vegetable oil for butter, and honey for brown sugar.

The result was delicious; moist, sweet, with crumbly texture on top. I was so pleased to see my father’s happiness :D

No Sugar, Low Fat, Fruit and Nut Crumble Cake

Yield: 10 inch pan, 12 slices

Preparing time: 30 min

Total time: 1 h 30 min

Ingredients:

Fruit mixture:

• 1 1/3 cup low fat milk
• 1 1/2 cup dried fruit (I used dates, apricot, raisins, and mulberry), chopped
• 2 cup chopped apple
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Crumbs:

• 1/2 cup mixed nuts (mine consists of apricot kernel, pili, and macadamia), crush coarsely
• 1/2 cup honey + 2 tbsp
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder

Batter:

• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 175 deg C.
2. Prepare the pan. Grease and dust pan, line with baking sheet if it's needed.
   
3. To make fruit mixture, heat all fruit mixture ingredients on saucepan until it's steaming. Set aside.
   
4. Prepare the crumble. Combine peanuts, 1/2 cup honey, oatmeal, cinnamon and nutmeg powder, and vegetable oil until incorporated.
   
5. On medium bowl, lightly whisk egg. Add vegetable oil.
   
   
   
6. Mix in flour, baking soda, and baking powder to egg mixture. Fold in fruit mixture until just combined.
   
   
7. Spread fruit batter evenly in to prepared pan. Scatter the crumbs on top evenly.
   

   

   (I also made three mini cupcakes for taste sampling :)))

8. Bake for 25 minutes, until the top turns golden brown.
9. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tbsp of honey on top.
   

Yum!