Festive Apple Breakfast Bake – Healthy Holidays!
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This cranberry and apple breakfast bake is the perfect festive breakfast. You’ve got the nostalgic flavours of cranberry and orange, crunchy sugar and toasted nuts, all incorporated into a healthy Christmas treat.
Imagine waking up on Christmas morning to a hot slice of this fruity, nutty cake, filling you up for the day’s festivities! It’s sure to be your new favourite Christmas bake recipe.
The holidays are usually a time of heavy eating (and drinking!). While there is no problem with that (Christmas comes but once a year!), it can be nice to have some lighter options to hand!
This healthy breakfast bake has been designed with your health in mind, as have our other vegetarian holiday recipes, including this green bean casserole (perfect for Thanksgiving) and these delicious vegetarian pigs in blankets!
Healthy apple breakfast bake: I’m dreaming of a LIGHT Christmas!
What sets this Christmas breakfast recipe aside from the rest?
We have chosen all our ingredients conscientiously, in order to make sure that this is a wholly healthy cranberry Christmas cake.
For example, we have used a mixture of oats and flour instead of just flour. Oats are more filling than white flour, containing 6.7g more fibre per 100g. This means that a slice of this apple breakfast bake will keep you full for longer than a slice of standard cake made with just flour.
We pulled the same trick in these oatmeal banana pancakes.
There are also a fair few apples in there, which aside from natural sugars and vitamins, add even more fibre to the mix! While we’re on apples, try our dutch pancakes if you fancy another apple breakfast recipe.
Furthermore, we have included low fat yoghurt in the recipe, which adds some protein and is a low-fat way to ensure that your healthy breakfast cake is moist and rich. One serving contains 12g of protein, which is a lot for a cake.
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Calorie Controlled Cake
Overall a large serving of our cranberry & apple breakfast bake will provide you with 412 calories – a solid amount of energy with which to start your day (for more breakfasts in this range, check out our 400 calorie breakfast recipes here)!
By the way, in our weight loss courses we tend to recommend a daily calorie intake of between 1200-1500 calories, which comes to around 300-500 calories per meal. So this is the perfect breakfast to incorporate into your weight loss plan, if that is what you’re aiming for (and if you are, try adding some of these breakfasts for weight loss to the mix as well)!
Health hacks: Yoghurt!
We think we’re onto something here!
Your classic cake recipe probably doesn’t include yoghurt, but we think that using yoghurt in cakes is a really smart move.
As mentioned above, yoghurt helps to make cakes moist and fluffy. It also lends a tangy flavour which prevents over-sweetness.
Yoghurt can also be used in a plethora of ways in baking to make a cake more healthy.
For example, you can substitute up to half the butter in a standard cake recipe for low fat yoghurt. Your cake will still be rich and creamy, but with considerably less saturated fat!
You can also replace shortening or oil with yoghurt to the same effect!
What’s more, if a recipe calls for any crême fraiche, sour cream, buttermilk or pretty much any other fatty dairy product….can you guess what I’m going to say? That’s right, use yoghurt!
These little nuggets of wisdom came from this article on how to use yoghurt in a cake, so check it out if you want to learn more!
But for now, enjoy this delicious cranberry and apple breakfast bake – a Christmas sweet recipe that won’t derail your weight loss goals!
Ingredients
Cake
- 12 oz apple (peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes) (12 oz = 350g = about 3 apples)
- 1 cup cranberries, dried (1 cup = 4 oz = 120g)
- 1 orange
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 ½ tbsp sugar
- 2 egg
- ½ cup natural yogurt (½ cup = 125g)
- 2 tbsp butter
- ⅔ cup rolled oats (⅔ cup = 60g)
- 2.5 oz flour (2.5 oz = ⅝ cup = 70g)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
Topping
- 2 tbsp rolled oats
- 2 tbsp almonds (chopped)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Zest the orange and reserve until needed.1 orange
- In a 9 inch baking dish add 350 g of apples peeled and cut into 1cm cubes, dried cranberries, the juice of the orange, 2 tbsp water, cornstarch and 1 ½ tbsp of sugar. Mix and reserve until needed.12 oz apple, 1 cup cranberries, dried, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 1 ½ tbsp sugar
- In a blender or food processor process the oats until you have a fine powder.⅔ cup rolled oats
- Melt the butter and add it to a medium sized bowl along with the eggs, natural yogurt, baking powder, salt, flour, powdered oats, zest of one orange, and 3 tbsp sugar. Mix by hand or with a hand mixer until you have an homogenous cake dough.2 egg, ½ cup natural yogurt, 2 tbsp butter, 2.5 oz flour, 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp salt, 3 tbsp sugar
- Transfer the cake dough on top of the prepared baking dish with fruit and create a smooth surface with the batter. Top with oats and sliced almonds.2 tbsp rolled oats, 2 tbsp almonds
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a cake taster or a knife comes out clean after inserting it into the cake, and the top is golden brown.
- Allow to cool for 10-15 minutes (if you can wait) and eat.
NOTES
- Make-ahead? Yes, can be made ahead.
- Freezable? Yes, can be frozen after cooking!
Well, I had my doubts about this (I should have known better). I am really am not fond of zesting, but the orange zest in this knocks it out of the park. So, now I’ve got the yummy banana bread recipe to rotate with this . Because I can have this for breakfast for four days, I won’t mind zesting the orange (I used a box grater). This is really good!
Woo, glad you enjoyed it as much as I do! I’m really happy to read that. Agreed, that little bit of orange really sets it apart! Thanks for writing 🙂
I cook for a Preschool and am always on the lookout for healthy breakfasts! I love this recipe. My only question is, can I make this ahead and freeze?
Hi Sandy, good question. I’m not sure about freezing the bake after baking. I’ve never tried it. But freezing the batter should be fine!
This is decadent! Feels like a real treat. Love the texture of the cake portion and the juicy fruit bottom. Made two pans tonight. Was thinking of giving one away… but may want to keep both instead!
Thanks Helen!! Haha that’s great, it’s a dilemma isn’t it? 😀
Hi there is the sugar tablespoons or teaspoons?
Hey Rochelle! Sorry about that, it’s tbsp! 🙂