Autumn means ALL the pumpkin-spiced things! It’s a seasonal craze I can support — and, by support, I mean “hold up to my mouth and shove in!”
So, with the hubby’s birthday right in the smack of pumpkin month, I don’t even ask him what flavor cake he wants. He’d normally say “chocolate,” but in September, October and November, the only option is pumpkin spice. Check out my Lightened Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake (gluten-free), get the recipe and find out what yumminess I served it with.
After flipping through a few cookbooks for inspiration, I found a crumb cake recipe that looked temping, but had 400 calories and 20 grams fat per serving! Since I was planning on serving my Lightened Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake with homemade sautéed bananas and pecan praline ice cream, I knew I needed to make my cake recipe a little lighter – in fat and sugar.
My version of this bakery-style crumb cake has 262 calories per serving and 11 grams of fat. How did I do that?! Well, a couple smart ways. First, I swapped in a couple sugar substitutes like lower-calorie Stevia sugar baking blend in lieu of white granulated sugar and dark coconut palm sugar for the brown sugar (still all the sugar carbs, but better tolerated by the body). Second, to lower the fat grams, I substituted some of the butter for fat-free Greek yogurt, but still kept plenty of the buttery “splurge” so that the crumbly but melt-in-your-mouth topping wouldn’t be compromised. All that butter is one reason why I decided to remove pecans from the recipe. A tough call to nix the nuts, but it did render the snack cake a little lower fat and “nut-free” which is always a plus in party settings when not sure of every guest’s dietary restrictions. In that same light, a gluten-free all-purpose baking blend was used ( but feel free to swap back in a regular flour with all the glutens 😊).
With no layers and fancy frosting, this pumpkin snack cake might seem a little casual for a birthday party. But I paired it with sautéed bananas and his favorite ice cream – WIN! The gluten-free cake is baked up in a 9” x 11” casserole dish, keeps well and is easy to transport, making it the perfect treat to take when invited to pot lucks, tail gate gatherings and Thanksgiving festivities.
Your taste buds will be giving thanks for the yummy pumpkin-spice fix, and your body will appreciate the sensible swaps made to lower sugar and lower fat. And, a serving also provides over 90% of your RD for vitamin A and 8% of iron – whoohoo, let us eat cake!
Where are you on the scale of pumpkin spice mania, 1 to 10? I just saw pumpkin spice dish soap at the store, what’s the weirdest you’ve witnessed? Favorite flavor ice cream to put with a pumpkin cake? Please share in the comments – XOXO, Jennifer
- 1/3 cup coconut (palm) sugar
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour swap gluten-free baking blend if needed
- 2/3 cup rolled oats ensure processed in gluten free facility if needed
- 6 tablespoons butter, cold
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (gluten free if needed) *see notes for protein powder option
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons gound cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 cup coconut palm sugar
- 1/2 cup 1/2 cup equals 1 cup” equivalent sugar substitute (like Truvia baking blend)
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/4 cup 0% fat, plain Greek yogut
- 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree amount in most cans
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup water tablespoon by tablespoon, as needed
-
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 9” x 11” baking dish with cooking spray.
-
To make topping, add coconut sugar, flour and oats in bowl. Use a pastry blender and cut in butter until pieces are crumbly and pea-sized.
-
In a large bowl, add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Mix dry ingredients until combined.
-
In mixer bowl, add coconut sugar, sugar substitute, and butter. Mix for approximately 2 minutes until creamy. Blend in pumpkin and Greek yogurt and eggs until well incorporated.
-
Next, add 1/3 of flour mixture into bowl with wet ingredients and mix until combine, repeat with remaining flour. If mixture seems too thick (depending on type of flour used), add up to ¼ cup of water, a tablespoon at a time.
-
Spread batter into pan and sprinkle with topping. Back for approximately 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center pulls clean. Cool in pan before cutting into 16 rectangles.
To add more protein, you may swap out 1/2 cup of flour with 1/2 cup of protein powder of choice including collagen hydrolystate. Note, this will alter the nutrition facts to the left which were calculated without protein powder.