An incredibly moist and healthy almond berry cake with creamy mascarpone icing. Gluten free, sugar free, low carb and so nutritious you could eat it for breakfast.
Self-depreciation. We are all good at it here in England because we fundamentally consider it as decent manners. No-one of a sane mind in this country wants to come across as a show-off or as Donald Trump. So when someone pays us a compliment about a new outfit, we’ll say something like “Oh, but the shoes really don’t match”.
Let’s say we have our hair done and someone says something nice about it. Our answer? “I had no choice, had to cover the greys” or “It really is so thin and horrible, I can never make it look like my hairdresser does”. When we serve food, we’re like, “I made this earlier, but you’ll probably hate it” or “it did not turn out like I wanted it to”.
Rings a bell?
The thing is, it’s a very fine line between constant self-depreciation and low self esteem. Because if you put yourself down constantly, you might just end up believing it yourself. I say it’s time to forget your inner critic and secret self-doubt and embrace it when others compliment you.
After all, you love that new outfit too – it was you who bought it. Once you found a hairdresser who does your hair the way you like it, you’ll be happy when you leave his salon. Thin hair? Not until the next time you wash it. And who cares anyway. But most of all, you KNOW your trusted and tested recipes are awesome.
What is the benefit of denying compliments? To be honest, I cannot see a single one. And consider this: When people have second helpings and you still tell them how horrible your cooking is you end up coming across as fishing for praise. Shock horror!
I started thinking about this mostly female dilemma because I baked this healthy almond berry cake and I think is possibly the best cake I ever made. It is moist. And it is satisfying. Even better, it has the most incredible mascarpone icing – why did I ever try to ice a cake with anything else? – and with all the berries on top, it is quite a looker, too.
The sponge is adapted from this muffin recipe by the low carb blog All day I Dream About Food. The reason why the mixture turns out so moist and light at the same time is because it uses yoghurt and only a little bit of butter. Healthy Almond Berry Cake is the mother of all gluten free, low carb, clean eating cakes.
In a perfect world, I would like everyone to make a healthy almond berry cake this week.
Here’s the deal. The next time someone compliments you, don’t rubbish yourself. Try accepting it with grace. Just enjoy it. And return the compliment. Now that’s a win-win. Everybody’s happy.
By the way, any compliments on this cake will be received warmly.
Healthy Almond Berry Cake
Ingredients
- 300 g plain yoghurt full fat (1 1/5 cup)
- 350 g almond flour 3 1/2 cups
- 6 medium eggs
- 4 tbsp butter melted
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp granulated erythritol
- 250 g mascarpone 1 cup
- handful of raspberries
- 150 g blackberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius.
- Grease a springform baking tin with butter
- Mix your yoghurt, eggs, 2 tsp vanilla and butter well.
Then add the baking powder, ground almonds and 2 tbsp of sweetener.
- Bake for ca 30 minutes or until the top is browned and a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Blend the mascarpone cheese with 1 tbsp of sweetener and 1 tsp vanilla
- Once the cake has cooled, spread the mixture on top and garnish with berries.
Jo storry says
I made a half recipe of this a week ago and put it into a muffin tin which made 10. I added a grated lemon rind to the recipe and added some mushed raspberries into the mix instead of doing the cheese/berry topping. Very nice they are. Unexpected use of them was when I had a hot cereal craving the other morning – I crumbled up one of the cupcakes, poured a mix of boiling water and cream over it and mushed it up. I also added a bit of toasted coconut into it. And it became a lovely, creamy hot cereal breakfast. Am going to always keep some in the freezer now for this purpose…. and will try the same with the orange and almond cake.
Katrin says
OMG I love the idea of a cake cereal! That’s pure brilliance. Also, grated lemon rind sounds like a great addition. That would be tasty in the mascarpone as well. Thanks for your input!!
Esther says
Can I make the cake overnight and then decorate it the next morning? Does it need to be kept in the fridge the whole time?
Katrin says
You could definitely do that, and the cake would look fresher and better that way, too. If you just leave it out for one night because your fridge is packed, in my book that’s fine, as long as you keep it in a cake tin or cover it up somehow. I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Debbie says
Hi Katrin,
Just wondering if I could use finely ground almond flour in place of ground almonds ? If not, how did you grind yours ? I have a food processor would that work out ? This cake looks so moist, can’t wait to try it !
Katrin says
Hi Debbie, if it is super fine AND fat reduced almond flour such as the Sukrin brand, I would not use it. I have tried Sukrin almond flour in this recipe and it did not work. I used the regular ground almonds you can buy in UK supermarket baking sections. My US blogger friends tell me that’s what THEY would call almond flour over there, it’s such a confusing term. I tried another brand called Carbzone here in the UK, which calls itself almond flour, but is not fat reduced and essentially ground almonds (albeit maybe a little finer than the supermarket ground almonds). So, to cut a long story short, if your almond flour is NOT fat reduced, you can probably use it with great success 🙂
Rina says
Have you ever tried makimg this as cupcakes? If yes, how long did you cook them for?
Katrin says
I have, actually! Check out these Grab and Go Muffins 🙂
Lois Hedstrom says
Do you grind your own almonds ,or can you buy ground almonds?What is mascarpone cheese never heard of it, is it like cream cheese?
Katrin says
In the UK you can buy ground almonds in the baking section of supermarkets. Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese. It thick, creamy and has a relatively high fat content. It is used in Tiramisu, for example.
Mary-Anne says
I would love to try this if I could just figure out the measurements !!!
Katrin says
hello Mary-Anne, this is one of my older recipes that I had not got around to converting yet. All done now!
Millie J says
Thank you for a great cake. I served it last weekend and it was a great success
Katrin says
Glad you all enjoyed it Millie!
Amanda says
That looks so good. I’ll give it a go this weekend, using strawberries. Using mascarpone instead of icing is such a good idea.
Katrin says
What a good idea to use strawberries. The British ones have just come in season. They taste so sweet
Birgit says
Love this recipe. A very simple and summery cake. Thank you for posting!
Katrin says
You are welcome Birgit! Let me know once you’ve tried it!
Jolanda says
I just made this cake and it is so delicious! I used sugar free syrup instead of the xylitol and it worked really well.
Katrin says
That’s so good to hear, thank you for letting me know. Which sugar free syrup did you use?
Tracey says
I used stevia syrup but only a few drops cos was scared of using too much. The cake came out perfectly in terms of texture and bake but not taste. It was bland. Tasted of nothing. Is the stevia where i went wrong cos I was SO excited.
Katrin says
Hello Tracey, I’m sorry to hear your cake did not come out the way you hoped. Did you use good quality vanilla? Vanilla bean powder or even fresh vanilla pods are the best in terms of taste. Also, maybe you just have more of a sweet tooth than me. Next time, just try to add more sweetener and definitely check the cake batter tastes good before you put it in the oven.
selina prager says
Mine is in the oven… not sure if I will make it look pretty enough for a picture but am planning on making it a breakfast regular. I’ll let you know how it turns out… TBC
Katrin says
Sounds good! Fingers crossed
Alex says
Hi!! Really, really want to make this now! Any ideas on butter substitution, as I’m not a very keen butter fan?:)
Katrin says
Hello Alex, you can substitute with coconut oil!
Siddika says
can i use cream or half and half instead of eggs? i’m on a low carb diet and i find even the smallest amount of eggs repulsive… i’m so off eggs 🙁
your recipe does look delicious though
Katrin says
The eggs act as a binder. I am not sure cream is able to do that job 🙁 If you want to omit eggs you could try using flaxseed, for example. It is used in vegan recipes as an egg replacement. Google “flax egg” and take it from there.
Jo says
What size tin did you use, please? It looks amazing. I’m planning to bake it this afternoon!
Katrin says
Thank you Jo! I used a 23 cm/9 inch diameter tin. Let me know how your cake turned out!
Tony says
Could I use steva instead of xylitol in this recipie
Katrin says
Of course you can, just adjust the quantity. The stevia I use is twice as sweet as xylitol, so I would halve the amount of sweetener.
Emme says
Hiya
Can I please ask what specific ingredients you used? Im using my fitness pal to log all the ingredients and nutritional information and its varying drastically form calories(+140ish) to fats(+12g) and proteins(+5) per slice.
Thanks for your help with this!
Katrin says
Hello Emme, I use a free website called caloriecount to calculate nutritional info. This is what their software came up with. I wish I had the answer for you, but I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the result. The only thing I can say is that (unless you have an actual nutritionist to hand and/or need to be 100% sure because of a medical condition) in the end it’s probably best to rely on your common sense and listen to your body. You know the ingredients are all good for you and the recipe contains only some sugar from the berries.
I used ground almonds, eggs, natural yoghurt (a brand called Onken), unsalted butter, mascarpone and the berries. Hope this helps 🙂
Elli says
This looks amazing, just a few questions
1) could I use dairy free yoghurt in this?
2) is almond flour the same as ground almonds?
3) could I use honey or maple syrup to sweeten it instead of sweetener
thank you for the inspiration with this cake
Katrin says
Hello! I am sure it would work with a dairy free yoghurt such as coconut yoghurt. Just check it has no added sugar! I actually used ground almonds myself, so sorry about the confusion. And it would of course taste nice with honey or maple syrup. You might have to reduce the amount of yoghurt a tiny bit because the sweetener is granulated and honey/maple is a liquid. Let me know how it goes!
Karen @ Se says
This so beautiful. I can’t believe it’s healthy!
Katrin says
Thank you Karen! All the swish and no sugar rush…. Have a great day!
Paula@Paula's Plate says
Wow, this looks absolutely incredible. I can’t wait to give it a try. Great post, too. Wonderful message 🙂
Katrin says
Thank you Paula, that put big smile on my face! I hope you’ll like it as much as we did. Have a great day 🙂
Kim | Low Carb Maven says
Happy Birthday and what a pretty cake. It looks Delish! I am American and I self deprecate, too. I was never comfortable with compliments or praise. I do try harder to give a big smile and a genuine thanks. Have a great week.
Katrin says
🙂 In the spirit of the article, thank you so much!