ByTiffany McCauley
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This Canada Day Cake is a special recipe I did just for my Canadian readers! But pssst!!… if you scroll to the bottom, you’ll see how to enjoy it for the 4th of July too!
I’m not Canadian, but I do have a lot of Canadian readers. So in honor of Canada Day, I thought I’d try out a cake recipe I’ve been contemplating for a while.
I tested this out at Mini Chef’s end-of-school-year picnic, and it was a hit! It’s not sickeningly sweet like the commercial cakes you buy today. But it’s definitely sweet, and oh the marvelous combination of orange, strawberry, and coconut. Yum!
This cake is super spongey (not in a bad way) and is a light and flavorful dessert for any Canada Day celebration.
I got the idea from the Kraft Canada website (they have a video that will walk you through the process of creating the maple leaf).
I also used this recipe for the whipped cream. Or, you can use regular whipped cream, whipped with about 1/4 cup honey.
Not to shabby for this California girl, eh?
P.S. – I also have a cake design for the 4th of July at the bottom here for my fellow Americans.
P.S.S. – If you’d like to see all my Canada Day recipes, check them out here!
MORE WHOLE GRAIN CAKE RECIPES:
- Chocolate Mug Cake
- Birthday Cake
CANADA DAY CAKE RECIPE:
Canada Day Cake
This delicious cake can be decorated for Canada Day, or the 4th of July! Either way, it’s delicious to celebrate with! Note that this recipe makes one layer. You’ll most likely want to make 2 layers as I did for the cake in the photo above.
4 from 1 vote
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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American, Canadian
Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes minutes
Servings: 20 servings (from 1 layer)
Calories: 102kcal
Author: Tiffany McCauley
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 4 tsp. baking powder
- 4 large egg whites
- 2 tbsp. light flavored oil
- 1 ½ cups unsweetened apple sauce
- ⅔ cup honey
- 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp. pure orange extract
- 1 medium orange, zested
US Customary – Metric
Instructions
Pan used: 9 x 13
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Line your cake pan with parchment. It should be fully lined so that the cake batter does not touch the actual pan. Just the parchment. This will make it very easy to lift out of the pan.
Whisk together the flour and baking powder.
Whisk in the rest of the ingredients, blending well.
Pour into lined cake pan and allow to sit for 5 minutes.
Bake for 30 minutes on the middle rack.
Allow to cool completely and spread on the whipped cream, topping with the strawberries.
Notes
Please note that the nutrition data below is a ballpark figure. Exact data is not possible.
Nutrition
Calories: 102kcal | Carbohydrates: 20g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 1g | Sodium: 12mg | Potassium: 173mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 5IU | Vitamin C: 0.3mg | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 0.6mg
NOTE: If you want to make a double layer cake like I did, simply make this recipe twice (I promise, it’s not that much work), and put strawberries in between the two layers.
4th Of July Version
4 from 1 vote
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so the icing you used is just whipped cream??
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Yup! That’s it!
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Oh I love this idea!! I’m going to canada on vacation in august, maybe I’ll bake this cake before that! 😉 Thanks and have a nice day!!
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just curious….what gives it the coconut flavor you mention..”But it’s definitely sweet, and oh the marvelous combination of orange, strawberry and coconut. Yum!”
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The coconut whipped cream.
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Hey! Thank you! How nice to be remembered! In honour ( notice the Canadian spelling, eh?) of YOU, we are going to make this cake!
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Yummy! That looks awesome! I can’t wait to make it. I cannot tell you how awesome it is to venture into the world of clean eating. I just started a couple of weeks ago and can already tell a difference in how I feel. Your blog is so encouraging! Thank you! =)
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Been wanting to bake a cake for canada day, but now that I have a clean recipe I gotta try it. thanks!
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Awwww, thanks!! … from a Canadian fan of yours :)) Happy Canada Day!!!
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Same to you!
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I’m confused about the “coconut” also. In the questions below you say the coconut flavor is in the whipped cream topping. In the next question someone asks if it’s just plain whipped cream and you say yes. Am I missing something about the coconut flavor source? Also, I’ve had problems finding whole wheat pastry flour. Can just whole wheat flour be used? Thank you.
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job – the whipped cream is made from the fat of full-fat coconut milk. So it’s whipped cream, but it does have a coconut flavor. You can try the whole wheat flour, but you will end up with a much more dense/coarse/bready cake.
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As a Proud Canadian, I can’t wait to try this recipe!! Thanks for remembering your northern neighbors (I love your 4th of July cake too!)
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Thanks! 🙂
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LOVE this site for all kinds of healthy options. No need to eliminate any food, just need to know how to make it clean!
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Exactly!
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I’m so happy you liked it! I’ve been looking for clean food coloring as well. So far, I’ve come up with either beet or pomegranate juice for red/pink and spinach for green. Still working on the blue…
If you used regular whole wheat flour, the cake will definitely be more dense because there is more gluten in it. But I’m happy it all worked out! Enjoy!
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This is in the oven now! I used agave since that’s what I had on hand (I didn’t realize I was out of honey!). I used coconut oil for the oil and I also didn’t have orange concentrate or orange zest…I used lemon zest and lemon juice. So, I actually changed this quite a bit and didn’t realize! The batter tasted really good. I can’t wait to see how it comes out!
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Awesome! Let me know how it turns out!
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My son’s birthday is July 4th (Independence day), but we are Canadians. Since we were celebrating his birthday on July 1st (Canada day) because of other engagements (work), I decided to make this cake. I followed the recipe and finished with frozen whipped topping as I forgot to put the coconut milk in fridge to rest and built cream. Next time, I will certainly try it. The orange extract and zest gave it a nice flavour. I have done quite a few recipes from this site and have never been disappointed. Great work.
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I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Thanks!
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I love this cake but was trying to figure out how to work it in to my son’s school Christmas party… I’m going to use pomegranates and strawberries and turn the leaf into a Christmas tree! Bingo! Thanks for the great recipes!
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is there a gluten free version of this cake? perhaps coconut flour or brown rice flour?
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Virginia – No, sorry. In recipes formulated with wheat flour you can’t just sub with a non-gluten flour. Things will fall apart fast. I recommend looking for a cake recipe on either Elana’s Pantry or the Gluten Free Goddess blog. Both are excellent sources, though Elana’s Pantry tends to be more of a clean eating approach.
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I’ve been wondering for a while now about where you buy your honey and if you buy in bulk. You seem to use 1/4 to 3/4 of a cup of honey for a lot of dessert recipes (and I’m so happy to find a source of clean desserts). But I buy honey in containers that maybe hold 3/4 of a cup total. I’m just wondering how you get your hands on that much clean honey without breaking the bank (since sadly the cheap stuff is often not clean). Thanks again for your recipes, especially desserts!
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Shanna – I pay a pretty penny for my honey, and I just buy enough to make it work. It’s not cheap!
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Could I switch some of the whole wheat flour with coconut, almond or oat flour?
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Enny – Maybe a little of it, but not all of it. Maybe a 1/4 or so. But don’t use coconut. Stick with oat flour.
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This recipe calls for “an orange, zested”. This is a bit ambiguous. Do you mean the zest of one orange or an orange with the peel removed? Thank you for this recipe. Looking forward to baking it for our neighbourhood BBQ:)
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Melanie – Sorry about that! You want the zest for part of the flavoring.
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Planning to make it for Canada Day this year as we have someone with a dairy allergy. You say with the whipped topping you used 8 -10 cans. I’m assuming of coconut milk. But in that recipe it says using 2 cans to make the recipe. So you times it by 5 to get enough to cover the cake? Did that include filling or just the outside? That’s a very expensive cake coveringReply
Vicky – Oh gosh no! 2 cans should be plenty to cover a whole cake. If you want to be safe, 3 cans. But 2 should be fine. (15 oz. cans of full fat coconut milk)
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