Pumpkin Cranberry Tea Cake

I know, I know; what is this, a food blog now? 

It’s an everything blog I guess. And, yes, here’s another recipe. But it’s a dilly and I just had some with my morning coffee so it’s fresh in my mind.

It falls more in the banana bread school of treats than, say, a Devil’s Food Layer Cake, in that it’s not overly sweet. But it’s crazy moist and since it has no oil or egg yolks it's also extremely low-fat (especially if you omit the nuts.) It freezes really well and the recipe is so easy!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Dry ingredients:

1 cup quick oats (not instant. When I have oatmeal for breakfast it’s McCann’s so I keep a container of quick oats on hand just for this recipe.)

2/3 cup raisin bran, crushed (crush it right in your hand and toss into the bowl)

2 scoops vanilla protein powder

2/3 cup sweetener (I use Splenda--anything will work)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground cloves

1/2 tsp. nutmeg (Julia Child said you should never use so much nutmeg that you take a bite of something and say, “Oh, nutmeg!” I think that’s the only time she was wrong.)

1 tsp. powder

1 tsp. soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients:

3 egg whites (1/2 cup, if you pour them out of a carton, like I do)

1 cup plain, nonfat yogurt from a large container*

3/4 cup unsweetened apple sauce (what ignatz decided apple sauce ever needed to be sweetened in the first place?)

3/4 cup pumpkin (keep what’s left from the can in the fridge and add a tablespoon to your morning oatmeal or protein smoothie)

1 Tbls. dark rum (you can substitute 1 tsp. vanilla if you wish)

1 cup fresh whole cranberries (what--you don’t buy extra bags of cranberries in November and keep them all year in your freezer? In that case plump dried cranberries in warm water and they’ll work fine.)

1 cup pecans, rough chopped 

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk together

Add wet ingredients over the dry and whisk again

Add cranberries and pecans and fold in with a rubber spatula

Pour into sprayed 8” pan and bake for 32-37 minutes. A knife will come out almost clean. And don’t overbake because the dearth of fat in the recipe will cause the cake to get a little spongy.

*put the remaining yogurt in a strainer lined with a double layer of paper towels. Place a small ramekin upside-down in a large bowl and place the strainer on that. Leave in the fridge for 8 hours. You’ll be left with the thickest, creamiest, most inexpensive Greek-style yogurt you can imagine. Whisk in a Tbls. of maple syrup and you’ve got the best dessert topping. Or, you can just eat it up with a spoon!

To make this recipe into rather amazing brownies, substitute chocolate protein powder for vanilla, omit the ginger, cloves and nutmeg, add 1/4 cup cocoa powder, substitute lekvar (or an easier-to-find product called Lighter Bake) for the pumpkin, and raisins for the cranberries.

Enjoy!