The best Protein Apple Walnut Cake with fresh apples and chopped walnuts, but added sugar free and low fat! Healthy apple walnut cake uses protein powder for sweetness, has no sugar, and very little butter.

My husband had a friend staying over who bought some fruits and nuts one of the days he was here, but didn’t take them back with him. We had a couple of bananas, apples and a bunch of mixed nuts. Basically a bunch of ingredients for recipe inspiration.

Turns out apples and walnuts go really well together, and a cake is one of the classic desserts for this combination.

Gave a high-protein apple walnut cake recipe a try, and let’s just say my husband was very impressed!

Don’t forget to top off this protein apple cake with some whipped cream or ice cream. No regrets here.

Ingredients for Protein Apple Walnut Cake:

This recipe for a healthy, high protein apple walnut cake is made with no sugar and just clean ingredients like wholemeal flour and protein powder – no sugar!

Vanilla Protein Powder: For an apple cake with no sugar; I used whey-casein Quest Vanilla.
Unflavored Protein Powder to replace some of the flour in the original recipe, drop the carbs, and make this a high protein apple cake. I use Quest Nutrition’s Multi-purpose Mix Whey-Casein protein powder.
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
Churro/Cinnamon flavored Peanut Butter Powder (peanut powder), or regular
I used Churro Flavored PB Co peanut powder.
For a regular version I’d recommend Lakanto (code HAYLSKITCHEN gives you a discount) or PbFit or PB2 too.
Unsweetened Applesauce
Hot Water
Some Lemon Juice
A bit of Melted Butter
Baking Soda
Cinnamon and Nutmeg

For the filling for protein apple cake:

Sliced Apples
Walnuts

Tips for the Best Apple Walnut Cake

A super easy one, this really is the best apple walnut cake, but here’s some things to follow to get it right.

Use melted Butter so that it mixes well into the healthy apple cake batter.

Don’t over-mix the batter!
Pour the dry mix into the wet along with the milk and just gently fold them together. Don’t over-mix it or too much gluten will develop, which is what will make the cake gummy and dense.
There will be some lumps, but that’s completely okay!

Taste the batter and see if you need some extra sweetener. I’d recommend using stevia powder to maintain the consistency of the batter and have sugar free and healthy apple cake.

Don’t let the batter sit out too long; Pour immediately into baking pan and bake.
This is to avoid any reactions between the ingredients.

Don’t over-bake the cake or it will get tough; Remove when the tester/knife comes out just dry, but moist.

Cover cake with foil after 20 minutes to prevent the protein powder apple cake from burning on top.

Can you store this Protein Powder Apple Cake with Walnuts?

This moist and fluffy protein apple cake with walnuts keeps really well and is great for a meal prep snack – freezer friendly too!

You can keep the protein powder apple walnut cake out at room temperature for 2 days and for 4 or 5 days in the fridge in an airtight container.

To freeze the healthy apple walnut cake, slice the cake, wrap in plastic wrap, and place the pieces in a freezer-safe zipper bag. Thaw when you crave a midday treat! You can even store the whole protein apple snack cake itself!

Alternatives for Healthy Apple Walnut Cake Recipe with No Sugar

For the perfect healthy apple walnut cake recipe with no sugar, I used protein powder to replace the sugar and I would highly suggest using the ingredients recommended.

I do have some alternatives you can try. I haven’t testing them all, so I can’t say how the recipe might turn out.

Whole Wheat Pastry Flour: Use All purpose flour or 1:1 Gluten Free Baking Flour in the same amount by weight not cups.
Unflavored Protein Powder: Try more flour, but also reduce water to 1 cup only.
Cinnamon flavored Peanut Butter Powder: Regular PB powder, but also add ½ tsp extra cinnamon, and a bit of extra sweetener (taste the batter for this).
1:1 Zero Calorie Sugar Replacement: Regular confectioners sugar or coconut sugar (this won’t be sugar free though, and also higher in calories)
Melted Butter: Melted Coconut Oil or Dairy Free Butter
Lemon Juice: Apple Cider Vinegar or White Vinegar

More High Protein Apple Recipes: