
Do you love pumpkin pie but don’t want to make a crust? Try my new Kabocha Spice Cake. It’s rich, moist, and full of pumpkin-spice flavor, without the calories or fuss of pumpkin pie. This cake comes together in just 20 minutes active time, starting a roasted squash, or 30 minutes starting with a whole raw squash. You can use canned or roasted pumpkin if you’d rather. Serve cake topped with Whipped Coconut Cream for dessert or plain as a coffee cake or brunch dish. It’s healthy either way, with plenty of vitamin-packed squash, apple sauce instead of oil, aquafaba instead of eggs, and whole-grain flour.
Kabocha Spice Cake costs just 88 cents a serving using organic ingredients, or $8.80 for the whole recipe. Add organic Whipped Coconut Cream for 17 cents a serving.

Prep Time | 30 minutes |
Passive Time | 2 hours |
Servings |
servings
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- 3 cups white whole wheat flour 360 grams
- 1 1/2 cup light brown sugar packed, 390 grams
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups kabocha squash roasted until very tender, 750 grams
- 3/4 cup applesauce 170 grams
- 3 tablespoons aquafaba
- 1/2 cup raisins 80 grams
Ingredients
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- Heat oven to 400°F. Cut a kabocha squash in half, scoop out seeds, and rub orange flesh with olive oil. Make a "raft" from aluminum foil big enough to hold the two squash halves. Put the raft on a rimmed cookie sheet. Roast squash halves cut-side down on aluminum foil for about 30 minutes until fork-tender. (You can see that roasted kabocha squash falls away from the skin. It's so smooth that you don't need to mash it before adding it to the cake batter.) Turn off oven. Let squash cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Continue with recipe or refrigerate squash for up to five days.
- Heat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center position. Grease an 9x14-inch baking dish.
- In a mixing bowl, use a fork to stir together dry ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and stir until smooth using a big spoon or an electric mixer. (Use just the flesh of the kabocha squash, not the skin.) Pour batter into the baking dish and bake for 45 minutes, until cake begins to brown around the edges and is firm to the touch in the center.
- Let Kabocha Spice Cake cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, topped with coconut whipped cream if desired. Any extra cake will keep at room temperature for six hours and refrigerated for five days.
You could use roasted fresh pumpkin, perhaps from your Jack-O'-Lantern, or canned pumpkin for this recipe. Kabocha squash taste better, though. They are often smaller and therefore easier to cut up, with no detectable fiber.
Nutritional Information for Kabocha Spice Cake
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