White Bean Protein Bundt Cake

May 15, 2012

Do you know the feeling when you come across a recipe and you instinctively know that it’s great one?
Well that was the case for me when I first saw the White Bean Bundt Cake recipe on JoytheBaker.
I never thought in my life that it would have been possible to bake a cake from beans (I know, how provincial of me).
Also, I never thought it would be possible that the resulting cake would actually taste unbelievably good.
Finally, I never thought that I could manage not only to bake that cake but also to made few tweaks to make it more IronYou proof.
But no matter what I thought because this protein cake is R-A-D!




Using cannellini beans allows to cut the butter without renouncing to the moisture. That’s the magic of this recipe. Plus did I mentioned that you won’t taste the cannellini beans at all?



I also cut the sugar quantities in half from the original recipe.



As always, I added some protein powder to spike the amino acid “profile” of this cake. And used only egg whites instead of whole eggs.



The cake is a great base. High protein content, great vanilla taste, soft and moist; just as a bundt cake should always be.
As per Joy suggestion you can add a variety of things to it: chopped hazelnuts, chocolate chunks, blueberries, lemon zest, etc.



Joy coated her cake with a sweet meringue frosting (which is an amazing thing to do). I didn't do it (just because of the sugar), and ate it with just some organic cherry jam spread on top: the best!



White Bean Protein Bundt Cake Print this Recipe!

Ingredients

3 cups / 12.6 oz / 360 gr organic whole wheat flour
2 scoops protein powder (either vanilla or unflavored)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 can / 15.5 oz / 425 gr organic cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup / 2 oz / 56 gr organic unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup / 7.7 oz / 220 gr granulated brown sugar
6 large egg whites
1 cup / 250 ml reduced fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (skip this if you’re using vanilla flavored protein powder)

Directions

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350° F (175 C).
Grease and flour a bundt pan and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, protein powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  
Place beans in a food processor and pulse until beans are blended to a smooth puree.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or, as I did,, by using just a wooden spoon), add butter, sugar, and pureed beans.  Beat until butter and beans are well incorporated.
Add egg whites. Beat in vanilla (if using).
Add half of the dry ingredients. Beat until almost completely incorporated, but several white streaks remain.
Add all of the buttermilk and beat until incorporated.
Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until incorporated.
Make sure all of the wet and dry ingredients are completely incorporated.
Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake come out clean.  
Note: try not to over-bake the cake, and can become quite dry.
Remove the cake from the oven. Allow to rest in the pan for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.



Nutrition facts

That’s where this cake gets really exciting. The whole bundt cake has 3259 calories, but with it I believe you can feed a football team.
I estimated that from the cake you can get around 26 good size slices. If so, each portion has the following nutrition facts: 125 calories, just 8.6 grams of sugars and 2.5 grams of fats but an impressive 13 grams of protein. Last, but not least, 2.5 grams of precious fibers!
How about that?

This is to date my fav cake. I prefer it to the pumpkin protein muffins and to the blueberry protein banana bread. Which I never thought I could...

The Iron You

4 comments:

  1. can we use other beans?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's the thing; cannellini beans have almost no taste at all, that's why they make for a great sub for butter/oil.
      Maybe you can try using white/navy beans, but in my experience they have a much stronger flavor than cannellini and that might spoil cake.

      Delete
  2. I made these as "cupcakes" -- mixing in a scant handful of dark chocolate chunks. My daughters (3 and 4) LOVED THEM-- especially served slightly warm. They made a great pre-gymnastics energizer for my high-energy girls!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What do you think about using Garbanzo beans?

    ReplyDelete