Sports cake

Sports cake : sugar recipe

Internet visitors often ask me on forums or directly by emails about a product that a lot of sportsmen eat : the sports cake (or sport energy cake), replacing breakfast of snacks. I point out that a recommend a traditional breakfast, you can find its composition here : article healthy breakfast.

First question: how to bake a homemade sport cake bringing at least (or even more!) than commercial cakes?

Dietary sport cake by Nicolas Aubineau

300g (10.5 oz) white flour, 400mL (13.5 fl oz) semi skimmed milk UHT, 150g (5.3 oz) honey, 20g (0.7 oz) dried stoned apricots, 20g (0.7 oz) dried figs, 20g (0.7 oz) prunes, 60g (2.1 oz) dried grapes, 1 tablespoon mixed oils, 1 sachet of yeast and 1 tablespoon of powdered almonds

PRICE: 2,93€ the cake of 4 portions
(3.41$ or £2.58)

Because baking a homemade sport cake is good, but knowing what it brings is even better, here is below the nutritional analysis of the homemade sport cake by Nicolas Aubineau. That way you can compare it to the commercial cakes!

Average nutritional information:

(1) Source Ciqual 2012 and data before cooking
(2) 1 portion = 1/4 cake = 200g
(3) Nutritional Reference Values and calculated for 1 part of cake.

Note: For a sport energy cake more aerated, softer, less compact, less dense, prefer corn flour and/or add one to two battered egg whites to your dough at the end ! ;D

Preparation and cooking of the sport cake Nicolas Aubineau

Mix all the ingredients together. Oil the plate (cake plate or other), bake in a hot oven (th.6 180°C) for 40 minutes(to check the cooking, plant a knife in the middle of the cake, if it’s ready, the knife must come out clean). Let it cool before slicing and enjoy!

Keep it wrapped in a kitchen towel or in plastic foil or even in a vacuumed bag to keep it from 1 to 2 weeks. You can also, as every other sport cake, be frozen.

Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 40 minutes +/- 5 minutes depending on the oven.

Tips from a reader so the fruits do not fall at the bottom of the cake:

• Put 1/3rd of the dough in the plate with no fruits,
• Add then 1/3rd of the fruits
• Repeat 3 times the operation

Alternative ingredients

Flour:

1/3rd gluten free flour + 2/3rd with gluten

• With gluten : wheat flour, rye flour, barley flour, oat flour, kamut, small spelt
• Without gluten: chestnut, corn, quinoa, rice

Notes:

• Gluten brings the elasticity of the dough and helps the cake to raise during cooking! The best is to add in the preparation at least 1/3rd of flour containing gluten!
• The more whole is the flour, the more compact will be the dough
• Optimal choice: T45/55 (white) to T80 (bis), until T110 half whole (mixed)

Milk:

• Either animal issued, whole or semi skimmed: cow (with less lactose or not), goat, sheep
• Or vegetal (or vegetal juice): soy, almond, hazelnut, rice, oat, spelt, quinoa…

Sugar products:

• Honey, agave syrup, maple, elderberry, natural fruit syrups : raspberry, lemon, strawberry…
• Fructose
• Sugar or whole sugar, brown sugar, white sugar.

Dried and/or fresh fruits:

You get a lot of choice at the market!

• Fresh fruits: apricot, pineapple, banana, blackcurrant, cherry, lemon, lime, clementine, quince, date, strawberry, raspberry, passion fruit, ginger, pomegranate, gooseberry, kiwi, lychee, mango, melon, blackberry, blueberry, nectarine, orange, papaya, watermelon, peach, pear, prune, apple, grape, rhubarb, grapefruit, tomato…
• And the dried equivalents : dried apricots, prune, dried grape, dried fig… Goji berry…

Tip: to limit the fruits (fresh or dried) from « falling » at the bottom of the cake, roll them before in some oil and flour (the flour sticks to the fruits that way).

Fruit powder and oleaginous:

• Chestnut, Grenoble nut, Brazil nut, cajun nut, pecan nut, macadamia nut, hazelnut, almond, pistachio, pine nut…

Baking steps of the sport cake by Nicolas Aubineau

This sport cake is ideal to replaced the one proposed in the marathon pack. You should know that I created a salty version of the sport cake! Always on the homemade basis, you can find my recipes of homemade energy gel and homemade energy bar.

Note: If you want some other homemade recipes, I invite you to read my books. They will give you a lot of ideas regarding food and diets : Runningfood, Athletefood, Marathonfood, Trail Coaching Nutrition (co written with Aurélie Truel). Do not hesitate to give me feedbacks afterwards.

Sportingly,

Nicolas AUBINEAU
Sports Dietitian Nutritionist