Eggs usually help hold cake batter together, but none go into this apple streusel cake. Ground flaxseed mixed with water thickens into a gel that takes their place, helping bind a batter packed with diced apples.
The swaps don't stop with the eggs. Almond milk and apple cider vinegar stand in for a dairy-based mixture, while olive oil goes into the cake batter. A cinnamon streusel covers the top, giving the soft apple cake a crumbled finish.
Ground Flaxseed Becomes the Egg Substitute
One tablespoon of ground flaxseed gets mixed with three tablespoons of water, then rests until the mixture thickens. The result is often called a flax egg because it can take the place of one egg in recipes such as this cake.
That thickened mixture joins the wet ingredients before the batter comes together. No commercial egg replacer is required.
Apples Get Maple Syrup Before They Reach the Batter
Honeycrisp apples were used in the original recipe, though other baking apples can take their place. The fruit gets peeled, cored, and cut into cubes about one centimeter across.
Maple syrup goes over the chopped apples before they are folded into the cake. Keeping the pieces intact puts chunks of fruit through each slice instead of turning the apples into a puree.
Apple Cider Vinegar Goes Into the Wet Mixture
Coconut sugar, olive oil, almond milk, and apple cider vinegar form another part of the batter. The recipe uses plant milk rather than cow's milk.
Flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and the other dry ingredients get combined before the wet mixture and thickened flaxseed are added. The result should be a thick batter able to hold the apple pieces.
Apple Pieces Get Folded Through the Cake
The prepared apples go into the finished batter along with chopped walnuts when using them. Everything gets folded together before the mixture is spread into a parchment-lined round cake pan.
That keeps apple inside the cake rather than reserving all the fruit for the surface. Walnuts are optional, so they can be left out without changing the apple-flaxseed base of the recipe.
Cinnamon Streusel Covers the Baked Cake
Flour, coconut sugar, cinnamon, vegan butter, and optional chopped walnuts make the streusel. The ingredients are cut together until they form crumbs.
The cake bakes at 350°F for 25 minutes, then gets covered with foil and baked for another 15 minutes. Once out of the oven, the streusel goes across the top.
Flaxseed Is Only One of the Swaps Inside Each Slice
Cutting into the cake reveals apple pieces surrounded by a cinnamon-spiced crumb, with streusel sitting across the surface. Ground flaxseed handles the job an egg would have done, while plant milk and olive oil replace other standard cake ingredients.
The result keeps the parts expected from an apple streusel cake: fruit inside, cinnamon through the batter, and crumbs across the top, without relying on eggs to hold the slice together.
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