Sweet September! I’m back after late summer holidays and as always inspired by gorgeous Portugal and their wonderful ingredients and most yummy cakes. Visiting a local Artisan market I’ve spotted a carob and spaghetti squash cake which I just had to try and make my own version of. So here we go, very unusual, yet absolutely irresistible (at least to me) Spaghetti Squash Carob Fudge Cake as I call it :)
This is a heavy dense cake with lots of roasted spaghetti squash and most wonderful almond butter date carob frosting, rich and satisfying. It will taste even better the next day once the flavours develop and it’s lovely served chilled.
This would be a perfect cake to make if you have a large spaghetti squash, just roast some for dinner and use leftovers to make this cake. No one will ever know what the secret ingredient is!
If you like to make this more like a sponge cake, reducing the spaghetti squash to half should do the job. And if you’re not a fan of carob, you can easily use some cacao or cocoa powder to replace it for a different also delicious version.
Spaghetti Squash Carob Fudge Cake (vegan & gluten-free)
Ingredients
- 320g cooked spaghetti squash (2 cups)
- 100g ground almonds (1 cup)
- 70g brown rice flour (1/2 cup)
- 35g buckwheat flour (1/4 cup)
- 30g carob powder (1/4 cup)
- 75g coconut sugar (1/2 cup)
- 1tsp baking powder
- 1tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1tsp cinnamon
- pinch of sea salt
- 2tbsp ground flaxseed + 6tbsp water
- 80ml olive oil (1/3 cup)
- 120ml almond milk (1/2 cup)
- 2tsp apple cider vinegar
Carob frosting:
- 4 medjool dates, pitted
- 4tbsp almond butter
- 2 1/2tbsp carob powder
- ½tsp cinnamon
- pinch of sea salt
- 80ml almond milk (1/3 cup)
Topping:
- toasted almond flakes
Instructions
- Mix 2tbsp ground flaxseed with 6tbsp water and set aside to thicken.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350F)
- Grease and line the base and dust the sides of one 8" round springform baking tin.
- In a large bowl whisk together ground almonds, brown rice flour, buckwheat flour, carob powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, salt and sugar and set aside.
- In a small bowl whisk together flax eggs, olive oil, almond milk and apple cider vinegar.
- Add the wet mix together with the cooked spaghetti squash to the dry mix and mix until well combined. You should have muffin consistency.
- Spoon the mixture into your prepared tin and level out the surface.
- Bake for about 45 - 50 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out sticky. It will not get completely dry, because of the amount of spaghetti squash, it will have a slightly wet texture.
- Remove from the oven once ready and leave to cool down for 30 min before removing from the tin.
- To make the frosting simply add all of the ingredients into food processor or blender and blend until you have smooth frosting consistency.
- Once the cake is completely cooled, place onto a serving dish and using spatula spread with carob frosting. Sprinkle with some toasted almond flakes.
- Tastes lovely chilled. Enjoy!
Notes
To prepare the spaghetti squash:
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400F)
Carefully trim spaghetti squash on each end and cut into half. Scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Place cut size down onto a baking sheet filled with little water and bake for 30-40 minutes until the flesh is soft when pierced with a fork.
Once the spaghetti squash is soft, take a fork and gently pull the inside of the squash to create spaghetti like strands.
Set aside the required amount for the recipe and enjoy the rest.
This looks & sounds amazing, H!! What a great way to include some seasonal squash in your diet this Autumn! Y U M. I will definitely try this! Txxx
Thank you so much Tee! Yes, it is, I absolutely loved trying it out in a cake :) Hxxx
Hana,
Is this the only squash to use in this recipe? Because where I’m from it’s no longer available and even in season isn’t east to find.
Hi Keren, I’m sure you could use other roasted squash or pumpkin puree too. It will be a slightly different flavour, but shouldn’t affect the recipe too much. Let me know how you like it :)
Wonderful cake, Hana.
I actually found spaghetti squash in my farmer’s market and this one was fabulous. I find with squashes they differ in quality. Sometimes you can have a butternut squash that’s so rich you could mistake it for sweet potato. Other times the flavour is flat and/or the yield is small and dry. This one was so big and rich, it gave me 4 cups of juicy sweet squash.
I ground my own almonds since I didn’t have almond flour lying around so probably my cake came out a bit more crunchy than yours but I didn’t mind it. I used just rice flour, 1 cup of it, to compensate for reducing about half the sugar, which worked beautifully, the sweetness of the squash and dates plus about 1/4 cup sugar is perfect.
It’s so delicious, soft and intriguing. Thanks, Hana. The carob flavour is there and mingles beautifully with all the other ingredients. The more I bake the more I can’t bake ANYTHING that doesn’t have vegetables in it. Seriously, they contribute immensely to the texture of breads and cakes.
Hi Keren, I’m so happy you’ve enjoyed this recipe. I wasn’t sure how it will be liked, because it’s quite an unusual one.
That was so lucky to get the perfect spaghetti squash for it too, it makes so much difference! I know it’s frustrating when you get one that has no flavour, but you can’t always win.
I shall make some more veggie cake recipes for you! Much Love Hx
Hi! I’m not vegan and want to make this with eggs… how many would I add?
Hi Maria, you can replace the flax eggs (2tbsp ground flaxseed + 6tbsp water) with 2 eggs. Hope you like it :)
HI Hana,
I love your recipies! I made several and can’t wait to try this cake. I am very happy I found your website. My question is the following: do you need to blend cooked spaghetti squash into wet ingredients so that it’s fully incorporated and strands are broken down, or do you just add it cooked as is, with strands? If it’s the latter, how do you make sure you don’t feel/taste the actual squash strands in the cake?
Thank you in advance for resonding.
Hi Batia, thank you so much for your kind words. I’ve added the spaghetti squash without blending it, with the strands. You don’t have to worry about tasting it, the strands are so soft they will just blend in with the rest of the ingredients. It’s the same like making carrot cake, just adding grated carrot.
Hope you enjoy this recipe :) Much Love Hx