Recipe: A Zero-Waste, Gluten-Free Apple Spice Cake
Recently, we discovered my husband and gluten don’t go well together. While it means he can only drink certain beer, and we basically have to make our own pizza now, it’s a huge relief to know what was causing him to feel bad.
Add that to my zero-waste journey and nearly 20 years of vegetarianism/picky pescaterianism — we’re quite the pair.
We’ve been doing Imperfect Produce for a couple months now and while we use most of our produce the week that we get our box, we had stockpiled a lot of fruit that was on the verge of going bad.
Enter the juicer. I juiced up the oranges and apples - it was fantastic, but then I had leftover pulp. We don’t have a composter here in Burbank (which makes me incredibly sad), but we can reuse that pulp and make it into something tasty.
Hence, this zero-waste, gluten-free apple spice cake was born. I based it off this recipe from ThePrettyBee.com but made a few tweaks to accommodate the apple pulp.
Zero-Waste Gluten-Free Apple Spice Cake
Ingredients:
2 cups Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 packed brown sugar
1/3 cup safflower oil
1 1/2 apple leftover juice pulp, pulverized in a blender with 1/2 cup of water for 5 minutes
1 teaspoon vanilla (gluten-free versions available)
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 cup water
Instructions
Using apples that are on the verge of going bad - juice them to extract the pulp. Use the juice however you like and save the pulp. If you don’t have a juicer, you could slice up a few apples and blend in a blender for 5-6 minutes. You could skip the additional water and you’ll want to end up with about 1 1/2 cups of apple mush. You could also use apple sauce and I recommend a brand that sells it in a glass jar.
Using the juicing pulp, add to a blender with about 1/2 cup of water. Blend for several minutes to reduce the larger pieces of pulp into a proper apple sauce style mixture. Add to a mixing bowl.
Add in flour, oil, vinegar, spices, salt and vanilla, mixing until all combined.
Fold in sugars and baking powder and soda.
Spread into a baking pan or muffin sheet. I used a pan that was about 8”x11” and it was perfect.
Bake for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees; or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
Let it sit for 10 minutes and slice and serve.
Note: I have yet to find a gluten-free flour that is 100% waste-free. All Bob’s Red Mill products come in a plastic bag as do most baking components. This is something that I’ll continue to work on to eliminate as much waste as possible.
