How to Make Healthy Caramel Latte Cake Using Sourdough Discard

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This utterly divine Caramel Latte Cake is rich and aromatic, teeming with that woody coffee flavour. You would hardly believe how healthy it is – plant based, refined sugar-free, dairy free and egg-free. This makes a massive cake to feed a crowd.

What is a Caramel Latte Cake?

This cake is not your classic coffee cake. Did you know that “coffee cake” is not generally flavoured with coffee? The term “Coffee cake” denotes a simple cake, un-iced, and served with your morning or afternoon sip.

This Caramel Latte Cake, on the other hand, is a show-stopping dinner finale. It is a dessert designed to impress. I could not have it confused with a mere afternoon tea snack cake!

Therefore, I have dubbed this suped-up coffee-flavoured cake, “Caramel Latte Cake”, because of the aromatic coffee and the deep, caramel flavour from the dates.

This cake is so utterly decadent, that the term “Coffee cake” just did not suffice. There is something about the words “Caramel Latte” which is so sumptuous and indulgent. And that is what this cake is!

This recipe makes a large 22cm cake, and it can be easily cut into three layers. Thus the end product is decently iced and gloriously tall. It’s a show-stopper, that’s for sure!

Is Caramel Latte Cake Vegan?

This Caramel Latte Cake is! Traditionally, cake is made with eggs and butter, which is the very opposite of vegan.

By subbing butter for oil and eggs for sourdough discard, baking powder and baking soda, you can have your vegan cake that is still moist, fluffy and delicious.

Using oil instead of butter has the added benefit of giving this cake a longer shelf life, plus it does not dry out if you put it in the fridge!

The other bonus of making Vegan cakes is that they are often so much cheaper to make than conventional ones. Dairy products and eggs are so expensive these days (especially with inflation and egg shortages, so any recipe that allows me to have my dessert without blowing the budget has to start by being Vegan.

How Is This Caramel Latte Cake Healthy?

To me, there is no greater satisfaction than disguising healthy food in delicious and eye-dazzling ways. This cake is one of my latest ventures.

But if it is so decadent and indulgent, how can this Caramel Latte Cake rightly be labeled as healthy?

To get that caramel flavour, you would normally need brown sugar or caramlised white sugar (which is extremely unhealthy!) This cake, however, is sweetened with dates, and fermented overnight using Sourdough Discard.

Therefore, it is full of nutrients. The negative effects of the white flour have been assuaged through long fermentation. We know that anything that is fermented for longer than 7 hours, reduces blood sugar spikes, making it lower on the glycemic index.

What Flavours go with Caramel Latte Cake?

This Caramel Latte Cake will go with anything that goes with coffee.

I have iced it with a coffee-infused Coconut Frosting (recipe on this page) which is utterly divine and really brings that coffee flavour home.

But a chocolate ganache icing would pair very well, for a Mocha Cake, or you could even mix Biscoff Spread through the frosting, for a decadently spiced layer.

Another idea that would be lovely is a Caramel Frosting – this would make this well and truly a Caramel Latte Cake.

To Ferment or not to Ferment?

There is definitely no serious baking need to ferment the flour overnight. If you are in a hurry, skip this step, mix all the ingredients and bake.

The point of fermenting the batter, is to make the cake healthier and easier to digest. Apparently fermentation does help to tenderise the cake crumb, but this cake will still turn out well if you are in a hurry and need to have it baked!

How to add the Caramel flavour to this Caramel Latte Cake.

To sweeten this cake in a healthy way, I made a date paste out of dates that have been softened for 10 minutes in boiling water. I will blend the softened dates to a paste, then add that to the fermented flour mixture.

Dates provide a deep, rich, caramelly flavour that cannot be replicated with honey or even brown sugar. Plus, they bring nutritional benefits of their own, and are especially rich in manganese, which aids proper hormone production in your body (source).

Dates are also really good for women in the last few weeks of their pregnancy. They help to soften the cervix, making labour and delivery easier. This cake is such a luscious way to get your date fix, mama!

How to use Dates in baking:

I always use dried dates, since they are a lot cheaper, but dried dates do need to be softened, otherwise they are tricky to incorporate into batter.

This is why I always make them into a paste by softening them in boilingwater for 10 minutes. Strain the water off, and blend to a smooth pulp.

Use this date paste as a 1:1 ratio as you would sugar. You will need to adapt the other wet ingredients, because the date paste brings added moisture, whereas sugar does not.

I do like my cakes nice and sweet, so I do add a tiny bit of Truvia, and that makes the cake nice and sweet.

The reason I add Truvia to get the desired sweetness, is that you do not want to make the mistake of using too many dates. Too many dates will make the cake too fruity, and will overpower that coffee flavour. You want just enough date paste to get caramelly sweetness, and no more.

Do not undercook the Cake

This cake batter is a damp, heavy mixture, so it requires a long, slow cook time, at least 1 hour at 170 degrees Celsius.

Make sure you keep an eye on the cake in the oven, as not all ovens are created equal! Yours could run hotter or colder than mine. Check it after the 40 minute mark and make a judgment call about how much longer it needs.

Frosting the Caramel Latte Cake

Frosting cakes is the best part of cake baking (and eating) in my humble opinion. The right frosting can truly elevate a cake to celestial levels.

To keep this cake vegan, a lovely Coconut-based Frosting recipe can be found here. Lately, I have been making a lighter version of this using my Homemade Yoghurt instead of coconut cream, and it turns out ultra creamy and cheesecakey!

I added instant coffee powder, a hint of vanilla essence and Truvia and it made the most luscious coffee-cheesecake icing, which was perfect for this cake. This frosting sets firm in the fridge, so do not be worried if it looks a little bit runny!

How big is the cake?

This cake makes a decent 22cm sized cake.

It is fairly large – high and dense, and copes extremely well with being sawn in thirds and thickly iced. How good do those layers look? Don’t you want to just dive in?

How to Serve the cake:

This cake is best served as you would a Caramel Latte: buried beneath a tall swirl of whipped cream.

That is seriously all it needs. But, if you want to jazz it up a bit, you could decorate it with a ring of chocolate covered coffee beans – that would be poetry in motion!

How to Store the Cake

Because of the oil, this cake stores really well in the fridge without drying out. It is a lovely, moist cake, spongy and deliciously sweet. And it actually tastes better the older it gets. How magical is that?