Coconut & Caramel Protein Cake (Gluten-Free)

I don't know about you, but I know a lot of 'protein skeptics'. You know, the kind of people who think that protein powders are 'weird' and that protein powder cakes are even weirder. They immediately assume that, just because you're not using flour, sugar, or butter, your protein cake is an abomination - an insult against 'real' baking - and that it must taste... nasty, like a pseudo-cake of sorts. 

These are the people I love to bake for the most! Because, by the time they're done with their protein cake, their view of protein baking has taken a resolute 180 degree turn. You watch their eyes widen and their manners drop as they violently plow through their cake and ask you over and over if this REALLY has protein powder in it; if it REALLY has no sugar, white flour, butter, or oils.


It's exactly what happened to me yesterday. A protein skeptic friend I hadn't seen for a while stopped by my house for coffee. We sat down in the living room and, along with our lattes, I brought this protein cake to the table. I told her what was in it (her eyes narrowed), cut her a slice (her head titled slightly), read out the macros (she adopted a suspicious expression) and... she dug in.

In a matter of seconds, there it was! "Anna, what the hell! This is amazing! How could it be! It's like regular cake!" Ha >:-) She left that day with a goodie bag of protein powders on one hand (to try her hand at protein baking too) and, on the other hand, this recipe:

Ingredients - for the cake:

1 cup of liquid egg whites
1/2 cup of banana whey protein powder
2 cooked beets
2 tbsps of coconut flour
3 tbsps of dessicated coconut
2 tbsps of brown rice protein powder
1 tsp of toffee flavdrops (optional but smashing)
1 tsp of baking soda


Ingredients - for the frosting:

1/2 cup of banana whey protein
1/4 cup of dessicated coconut
1/2 cup of vanilla vegan blend
1/2 cup of goji berries
1 cup of carton coconut milk
1 tsp of toffee flavdrops (again, optional but nice)

Directions: Blend all the cake ingredients together and bake inside three little cake molds or giant-muffin molds. I used these. You can bake the mix into five or six muffin cases too :-) Bake this at 170 C (320 F) for about 35 minutes or until when poked with a knife, your knife comes out clean. Once baked, allow them to cool and slice them in half. Then, make your frosting by blending all the frosting ingredients together (using a haldheld blender or food processor). Finally, just frost the cakes and add some more coconut on top.

The end-product is shockingly caramelish and super crunchy from the coconut and gojis. It's delicious, seriously, try it. Try it to enjoy it. Try it and convert any and all your protein-skeptic friends too! It's a wonderful thing to witness :-D

Macros per cake (out of the three I got from the mix above): 476.6, 23.1g carbs (out of which 8g are fiber), 58.6g protein, 15.4g fat.

Each cake comfortably serves two so each slice: 238kcals, 11.5g carbs (4g fiber), 28.4g protein, 7.7g fat.

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