Hooray for perfectly simple joys, like apple season! I wanted to post this in time for Rosh Hashana last Friday, because this is a true apple-tastic celebration cake—and wholesome enough for breakfast or brunch.

Organic India’s Cinnamon Spice Psyllium Pre & Probiotic Fiber blends beautifully with light, homemade oat flour, adding some hearty bulk. I used this flavorful psyllium blend to add nutrition to the topping, too, but regular psyllium will also work for both. Plump Medjool dates are a perfect pairing with apples for delectable natural sweetness, but feel free to swap in honey for more traditional taste. Topped with delightful nutty, crumbly topping, this moist apple cake is nutritious enough for breakfast, rich enough for dessert.

You don’t need to purchase expensive flours to make this wholesome treat--all you need is oats! For this recipe, place approximately 3 Cups certified gluten-free oats in your food processor. Whizz on high, pausing to scrape sides several times, until you’ve achieved a fine flour. Typically, oat flour does best in baking when mixed with almond or other bulkier flours, but psyllium’s unique binding properties ensure superb results with oat flour alone. And, if you go with Organic India’s heat-tolerant psyllium products offer powerful wellness benefits, supporting the immune system and whole health with essential pre and probiotics and digestion-aiding herbs.

I may not have made it in time for the Jewish holiday, but this has been a celebration cake in our house, twice in the last month. You may remember that Chef F had a big 7th birthday recently. What I didn’t share was that I ruined his birthday cake…sort of.

No one need explain, there’s a lot to juggle right now. And, there are so many levels of juggling! On Chef F’s birthday week, I multi-tasked to a dizzying degree. I thought I had it all down, just. One night, Dave and I swapped midway through bedtime rituals, and during that time, I tried to quick bake Chef F’s requested carrot layer cake.

If there’s one thing we all know, we can’t cheat time. When I pulled the from the oven, it looked beautiful. But given my hurried state of mind, I didn’t toothpick test, or even carefully observe. I let the cake sit on the counter, covered, for two days. Birthday day was so fun-filled and busy (in a quiet, pandemic, Lego-loaded sort of way) that I didn’t even get down to frosting until just before I intended to serve…

Sadly, “Happy Birthday” singing was delayed. When I tipped the lovely looking carrot cake out of its tin, it revealed itself for the soggy, less than half-baked disaster it really was. And that’s when I got to see one an unexpected, beautiful side of turning seven: rather than dissolve in tears, Chef F smiled, laughed it off, and appreciated my scrambling like crazy to bake another cake—this one a quick, vegan vanilla chocolate chip cake with chocolate frosting.

The next day, it just so happened I had planned to bake and photograph this lovely cake for Organic India, assuming the recipe worked out as I hoped. Not only did it “work out”, Chef F even declared it the “best cake of the birthday weekend”! Yet, this was a cake that could have just passed for breakfast, too. Brunch, definitely. And that is definitely icing on the cake.

Cinnamon Apple Psyllium Cake

For the cake:

1 Cup pitted Medjool dates, soaked in warm water for ten minutes*
1 ½ Cups unsweetened almond or other non-dairy milk
2 Teaspoons lemon juice
1 Teaspoon vanilla
⅓ Cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
¼ Cup unsweetened applesauce
2 ¼ Cups oat flour (or approximately 3 Cups oats, processed)
2 ½ Tablespoons ORGANIC INDIA Cinnamon Spice Pre & Probiotic Fiber
1 Teaspoon baking powder
½ Teaspoon baking soda
1 ¾ Cups chopped apple, peeled (about 2 large)

For the streusel topping:

½ Cup chopped walnuts (swap in ½ Cup quick oats and/or extra flour for nut-free)
¼ Cup flour of choice (rice, oat, whole wheat, gluten-free)
⅓ Cup coconut sugar
2 Tablespoon ORGANIC INDIA Cinnamon Spice Pre & Probiotic Fiber
3 Tablespoons olive oil

Drain dates and transfer to a high speed blender or food processor with the milk, lemon juice, vanilla, oil, cider vinegar, and applesauce. Blend until smooth. The mixture will resemble the thickness of pancake batter.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8x8x2-inch baking pan or similar with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the oat flour, ORGANIC INDIA Cinnamon SPICE Psyliium Pre & Probiotic Fiber, baking powder, and baking soda, making sure the psyllium is thoroughly distributed throughout.

Add date-milk mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until combined. Fold in apples. Spoon batter into the prepared baking pan, using a spatula to evenly spread the thick batter.

Prepare the streusel: Add all dry ingredients for the streusel to a bowl, stir with a whisk, then add the wet ingredients. Use a spoon to combine everything until the mixture is slightly crumbly. Spoon or sprinkle evenly over batter.

Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

*Feel free to swap in 1 Cup honey for the Medjool dates for a more traditional apple honey cake dessert; in place of blending, simply add in all the wet ingredients at once to the mixing bowl and stir to combine with the dry.

Cinnamon apple psyllium cake