Easy & Nourishing Soaked Apple Breakfast Cake (gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free option)
Say hello to a cozy, comforting, apple-y fall breakfast! This Soaked Apple Breakfast Cake is gluten-free, nut-free, and has dairy-free and sugar-free options. Packed with protein and slow-digesting carbs to keep you and the kids full and ready for your day, this will be your new easy, nourishing breakfast go-to for busy mornings!
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After 2 years of early mornings and public school, I really thought I had busy school morning breakfasts figured out…
Really. I thought I was pretty hot stuff…
Then, my daughter decided she was sick and tired of eggs.
And not just fried or scrambled eggs.
She’s all but sworn off of hard- and soft-boiled eggs, poached eggs, and sometimes, even quiche!
Gah, but egg-free breakfasts are SO darn hard! (Well, at least they are for me.)
Because eggs are such a cheap, fast, and easy protein source — perfect for busy mornings!
Alas, I tried talking her back into eggs. She wasn’t swayed one bit by my talk of how amazing the fats in pastured egg yolks are or my pleas for her to “just try eggs today and see if you’ve changed your mind”.
That girl of mine can be so stinkin’ stubborn. (Kinda like her mother.) 😛
Perfect Fall Breakfast: Nourishing Apple Breakfast Cake!
So this isn’t technically an egg-free breakfast… but it is cake that has eggs in it for breakfast.
Let me repeat: THIS IS CAKE FOR BREAKFAST.
Allow it to sink in, Momma.
Your offspring may never complain about breakfast again… simply let them eat cake! 😉
It’s a lightly sweetened, perfectly apple-y, gluten-free, nut-free cake made with slow-digesting carbs like applesauce and soaked oats.
I love to bake this cake on Sundays during my weekly meal prepping sessions. Then, all we do is slice and serve for breakfast!
If you like to prep ahead and re-heat like I do, this nourishing and soaked Apple Breakfast Cake is right up your alley!
Is the soaking step absolutely necessary?
Hey, you’re a grown-up, right? Don’t let me tell you what’s necessary in your kitchen. 😉
Soaking IS a necessary step for me, and I’ll tell you why…
Oats are high in an anti-nutrient called phytic acid or phytates. When eaten, this compound binds to the minerals in the food, preventing your body from absorbing them.
Over time, especially if you eat a diet that’s high in grains, including oats, your body becomes more and more deficient in minerals because it’s just not able to get them from your food. Not good, right?
So, we solve this problem through soaking, using an acidic and probiotic medium (like yogurt, kefir, dairy-free yogurt, or water + apple cider vinegar) that effectively neutralizes the phytic acid in the food, freeing up those minerals to be absorbed by your body.
The recipe is prepared just as you would prep any other cake recipe — by combining and mixing together the ingredients. Yet, rather than putting it in the oven right away, you leave it to “soak”.
In this easy soaked Apple Breakfast Cake, you combine everything — except the eggs and leavening — cover it, and let it sit for 8 hours or overnight. The next day or 8 hours later, add in the eggs and leavening and bake!
I’m going to soak. Should I use yogurt, dairy-free yogurt, kefir, or ACV + water?
The answer is… use whichever one you have or tolerate best. 🙂
If you avoid dairy, use an equal amount (1 cup) of your favorite plain, dairy-free yogurt. Or, if you prefer, use 2 tablespoons of raw apple cider vinegar + 1 cup water minus 2 tablespoons.
Our family tolerates dairy just fine, especially cultured, pastured dairy products. I always have full fat, plain, grass-fed yogurt and homemade raw milk kefir on hand, so I pick one of those.
Using Greek yogurt or kefir is the best way to add extra protein to this breakfast cake. Since it does contain a higher amount of carbs, I highly recommend amping up the protein in this recipe however you can to keep your blood sugar stable and keep you full for longer.
Sweeteners… you have options!
If you’re a Nourishing Traditions person, I know the soaking step in this recipe has you extra giddy. 😉
For you, I recommend your favorite, whole food, granulated sweetener. My favorite is coconut sugar because it contains trace minerals and is lower on the glycemic index than evaporated cane juice or date sugar. I use this coconut sugar.
If you’re avoiding sugar or following the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle, I recommend my own DIY sugar alternative, Dietz Sweet.
And yes, if you use a sugar alternative and egg whites (see recipe!), this is a Trim Healthy Mama E (Energizing) breakfast!
What type of applesauce?
Personally, I’m an applesauce purist. As in, apples + water = applesauce. I don’t need sweetened applesauce or added cinnamon or anything like that.
In fact, the *best* applesauce is this Instant Pot No-Peel Applesauce! You can use part of it for this recipe, then save the rest for more apple cake or kids’ lunchboxes or snacks!
If you need to buy applesauce, I recommend finding one that’s organic and made with as few ingredients as possible. When I don’t have time to make it myself, I buy Thrive Market’s applesauce.
Thrive Market has the best price (way better than Amazon!), and I can stock up on other favorites while I’m ordering. Click here to learn more!
Have your nourishing Apple Breakfast Cake with…
You might like to make this gluten-free Apple Breakfast Cake part of a healthy breakfast by serving it with…
- nitrate-free bacon or sausages
- bowl of yogurt
- a smoothie
- a glass of raw milk or kefir
- hot tea or coffee with added grass-fed collagen or gelatin (<– Save 10% on my favorite gelatin and collagen by using my discount code ALLTHETHINGS!)
Or, you might decide to just eat the cake, and that’s fine with me. 😉
Now, let’s get down to easy meal-prepping business and make this Nourishing Soaked Apple Breakfast Cake!
Easy & Nourishing Soaked Apple Breakfast Cake (gluten-free, nut-free)
Say hello to a cozy, comforting, apple-y fall breakfast! This Soaked Apple Breakfast Cake is gluten-free, nut-free, and has dairy-free and sugar-free options. Packed with protein and slow-digesting carbs to keep you and the kids full and ready for your day, this will be your new easy, nourishing breakfast go-to for busy mornings!
Ingredients
- 2-1/2cupsrolled oatsground to flour
- 1cupplain yogurtuse coconut yogurt for dairy-free
- 1cupunsweetenedplain applesauce
- 1/2cupapple cider or apple juicemay use water, if preferred
- 1/2cupcoconut sugaror use Dietz Sweet for THM or sugar-free
- 2teaspoonsground cinnamon
- 1teaspoonallspice
- 1/2teaspoonground cloves
- 1/2teaspoonnutmeg
- 1/2teaspoonsalt
- 2teaspoonsvanilla extract
- 5eggsor 1 cup egg whites for THM
- 2teaspoonsbaking powder
- 1teaspoonbaking soda
- coconut oil or avocado oil spray for greasing
Instructions
- Grind the oats to a flour consistency in a high-speed blender. This takes about 30 seconds.
- Place the oat flour in a large glass or stainless steel mixing bowl, such as the bowl for your stand mixer.
- Add the yogurt, applesauce, cider/juice or water, sweetener of choice, and all spices to the bowl with the oats and stir until mixed and the oat flour is saturated.
- Cover with a tea towel and set aside for at least 8 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly grease a 9" x 13" glass baking dish.
- Add the eggs to the soaked mixture and stir (or use your stand mixer) to fully incorporate.
- Last, mix in the baking soda and baking powder.
- Pour into prepared baking dish.
- Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until browned on top. The top should spring back when pressed, and a toothpick inserted should come out clean.
- Remove from the oven and serve immediately or store to use for breakfasts or snacks throughout the week.
- Store cake in the fridge after 2 days.
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More Easy & Nourishing Breakfast Recipes…
- Grain-Free & Low-Carb Fluffy Belgian Waffles
- Super Simple, 5-Ingredient Paleo Breakfast Hash
- Vanilla-Blueberry-Kefir Overnight Oats + 60 MORE Nourishing No-Cook Breakfast Recipes
- Keto White Chocolate Raspberry Muffins
- No-Bake Chocolate Orange Quinoa Granola (nut-free, gluten-free, oat-free, sugar-free)
- Paleo Chocolate Chip Pancakes
What are your busy morning go-to breakfast recipes? How do you feel about cake for breakfast?
This is a recipe I never knew I needed!!! It is amazing. I swapped the cinnamon for ginger due to an allergy and used sprouted oats, so no soaking. It turned out great! Thank you 🙂
Awesome! I’m so glad you love it so much!
Sounds yummy. When you say combine all ingredients and set aside for 8 hours do you mean in the fridge or on the counter?
On the counter. Soaking at room temp is necessary.
Could this recipe be made into muffins instead?
Sure! Decrease the baking time, though. 🙂
Hello, I apologize if you read this question of mine again, it seems like I wrote it and then it disappeared. My question, please: why do you use apple cider vinegar AND yogurt to soak the oats in? Can’t you use one OR the other? Or have I just misread your recipe… ?
Thank you,
The ACV + water is an option for folks who cannot tolerate dairy. You use either yogurt OR ACV + water. Hope that helps!
Hi Lindsey, Could you use cultured sour cream in place of the yogurt?
You sure can!
Could you use cultured sour cream in place of the yogurt? (Like Nancy’s or Good Culture). thank you!
hello, I just tried the soaked oats breakfast cake, can you freeze it, if you don’t eat it all?
Yes, you should be able to freeze it. I’ve never had to because we eat it very quickly, but it should freeze fine!
thank you
We’re having this tomorrow! I have dozens of jars of homemade applesauce (like you – without sugar) that we just don’t eat fast enough, so this is perfect!
Wonderful! Enjoy!
I am all for a breakfast that lasts for days! Plus this looks scrumptious!
🙂
I love this! Apples for breakfast, and in cake form are a total win right now haha
Delicious! I love clean eats (and finding ways to use the hundreds of apples I got from cleaning off a neighbor’s tree!)
This apple breakfast cake is good at anytime of the day, not just breakfast! I’m thinking of drizzling a bit of caramel sauce over the top of my next piece.
This looks amazing! And I have to say I like the soaked oats as I generally don’t do well with oats but soaked are not as harsh. This is a must try recipe!