Cat sponge cake, with oat flour, nuts, no sugar and glazed with jam

Cakes and dessert in general are something which probably everyone really enjoy, and find difficult to turn down. I am like that too, not always, but often.

That’s why I’ve tried to experiment different combinations of ingredients and flavours to achieve something good in two ways: taste and health.

First, about flour. The well-known white flour, commonly used for baking everything, here it is replaced with oat flour. If you are not used to it, probably at the first bite you will feel “ok something is different”! But believe me, that feeling is only short-lived 😊 I switched to oat flour as it is very flexible for baking, naturally gluten-free!!, good source of nutrients. Furthermore, it is higher in fibres than white flour, which lead to a lower glycemic index = slower released of energy through time = feeling full for longer = no insulin spike.

Second, sugar! Sugar is probably the most powerful drug available: the more you eat, the more you want. And it is not so great for our health. So, I replace it with honey: yes, honey is still sugar, somehow, but it also comes with important micronutrients. So, here, sugar is replaced with honey and the quantity is pretty lower than normal cakes.

Third, fats: here almonds and hazelnut give a great flavour and are a great source of good fats.

Lastly, I’ve tried not only to balance the kind of ingredients, but also the quantities: the aim was to bake a sponge with all macros as much balanced as possible.

The sponge itself is delicious, so there is no need for some decorations. But those can help to have more fun in the kitchen, we first eat with our eyes 😉

Ingredients:

1 egg

7 yolks

11 white eggs (alternatively, 2 eggs and 8 yolks and 8 white eggs)

5 tablespoon honey

100 gr oat flour (sifted)

10 gr unsweetend cocoa powder (sifted)

pinch of salt

30 gr hazelnut roughly crushed

30 gr almonds roughly crushed

3 tablespoon dark chocolate chips

Here I used a silicone cake pan cat-shape (30cmx20cm 7cm tall).

The positive thing about silicone cake pan is that you don't need anything more than your pan and your dough: you pour the dough in, bake it, and when cool you can easily removed the cake pan, and you will have a perfect shape.

In case you don't have a silicone cake pan you have 2 choices:

1. you can use some wet baking paper: if you add water you can roll the paper into a ball and then cover the cake pan: in this way you won't use any additional grease, but it can be difficult to get a clear shape.

2. butter and flour: add a knob of butter in the cake pan and put in the oven for 1-2 minutes; with a brush, spread all the butter around the cake pan. Then, dust it with a bit of flour. Your cake won't stick and the shape will be clear.

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Pre-heat the oven, fan at 190°C. When the cake is in the oven, you will decrease the temperature at 180°C.

Beat the egg and the yolks with the honey until pale: there is no raising agent in this cake, so this step is crucial. It is here when air starts incorporating in the cake, which will provide strenght to raise while baking.

In a bowl mix the oat flour with the cocoa powder.

In the meantime, beat the white eggs with a pinch of salt, until stiff

Now, another important step to keep incorporating air in your mixture.

Add a tablespoon of flour in the yolks and with a spatula, from the bottom, start folding.

Then, spoon by spoon, add the eggs white: keep gently folding with the spatula from the bottom to keep incorporating air in the mixture.

Once the egg whites are incorporated, go back to the flour, and keep adding (one tablespoon at the time) and folding.

Now it is time for the hazelnuts and almonds.

I didn't make a flour out of them, because I like to have crunchy bites here and there.

Last ingredient: dark chocolate chips.

Alternatively, just finely chop some dark chocolate:)

Pour the dough in the cake pan and bake at 180°C for around 30 minutes.

Every oven is different: to make sure the cake is done check the borders: they should come off the cake pan.

Use a knife: check the inside of the cake in the middle of the shape, if the knife comes out dry, cake is ready.

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Decoration time!

Cake it is already pretty like this, but why not adding few things?

This is a sponge cake, meaning it will dry out pretty soon (remember to cover it: a pieces of kitchen paper and some aluminium foil is enough), so I thought of glazing the cake with a bit of jam, to protect the cake, add flavour and taste

Ingredients:

3 tablespoon jam (I had some mixed berries)

100 ml water

1/2 tablespoon white egg or water

10 drops lemon juice

Icing sugar (at least 5 tablespoon, but read below)

1/2 tablespoon dark chocolate chips

Put the jam and water in a pot and bring to boil.

Boil for few minutes.

You need to reach a jelly consinstency.

With a brush, gently cover your cake.

Shiny, isn't?

If it solidfies, bring back the jelly on the heat for a minute, start to paint again:)

Melt the chocolate chips: simply put a bit of hot water in a bowl, and in a smaller bowl add the chocolate and put on top of the water.

A bit of patience and chocolate will be ready in no time.

Now for the white glaze.

In a small bowl, put the white egg (or water) and lemon drops. Start with a couple of tablespoon of icing sugar and mix it.

Keep slowly adding icing sugar until you reach a good consistency which will enable you decorating the cake (the glaze must not run away when you put it on the cake).

With the help of few toothpicks, decorate your cat as your imagination will guide you :)